Calgary Transit passengers in the city’s south should prepare for longer travel times over the coming weeks as a section of the Red Line will be closed to CTrains.
Beginning at 8 p.m. and continuing until the morning of Monday, Dec. 4, shuttle buses will be in place to ferry passengers between the City Hall/Bow Valley College, Victoria Park/Stampede, Erlton/Stampede, 39th Avenue and Chinook stations.
The closure will allow crews, who will be working around the clock to minimize the duration of the disruption, to switch the track from the temporary Victoria Park/Stampede station to the new permanent platform at the site. The project will include the tying of the new section of track to the existing tracks, connecting the overhead power lines, reworking pedestrian access to the new station and beginning the demolition of the temporary platform.
“We spent a long time evaluating all the different options available to us with our different consulting and construction partners and try to understand all the impacts of the decisions that are being made,” explained Kate Thompson, Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) president and CEO, on the duration of the disruption. “We landed on this nine-day closure as the safest most efficient way to meet all the project requirements.”
Thompson encourages transit users to expect heftier travel times.
“Plan ahead is what we keep saying. It will take longer to get where you’re going.”
Drivers on northbound Macleod Trail will encounter various closures between 25th and 12th Avenues during the construction.
Pedestrian access to Stampede Park from Macleod Trail will also be detoured.
Details regarding closures, detours and shuttle bus schedules are available at Calgary Transit – The Switch.