The first phase of Calgary’s Green Line LRT will be six stations shorter than originally planned as officials respond to significant increases in the total cost, now pegged at $6.2 billion.
The new line will now run between Eau Claire and Lynwood/Milican, instead of the originally scoped 18-kilometre line from Eau Claire to Shepard.
The changes mean five stations are being removed from the scope in the southeast including Ogden, South Hill, Quarry Park, Douglas Glen and Shepard, and construction of an underground station at Centre Street in the Beltline will also be deferred.
The tunnel portion underneath the downtown core will also be shortened as council voted in favour of building the station at Fourth Street S.E. above ground.
Under the new alignment, a storage facility, originally planned to be built at the Shepard station, will now be constructed at the Highfield station.
“This is a responsible way of moving forward with this vital and historic investment in city infrastructure,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek said during a press conference Tuesday night. “It’s critical because transit is the great equalizer in any city.”
The original alignment for the first phase of the Green Line was budgeted at $5.5 billion, but project officials noted it would’ve cost more than $7 billion unless mitigating steps were taken.
Council voted in favour of increasing the City of Calgary’s portion of funding for the Green Line by $705 million, to bring the revised total for the first phase to $6.2 billion.
Both the federal and provincial governments, the other funding partners, are not increasing their funding commitments to cover overruns.
City officials noted the funds will come from several sources including $208 million from city reserves, projected growth in the city’s tax base, and 75 per cent of future operational savings over the course of construction.
“That would get us further than not moving on this project at all,” Gondek told reporters.
Project officials noted the revised scope includes a revised projected ridership of 32,000 daily users, down from the 55,000 daily users originally anticipated for the original segment.
“We appreciate that some Calgarians will be disappointed that they will have to wait longer for the new LRT service to reach their community,” said Green Line Board chair Don Fairbairn. “But starting construction will lay a foundation for Calgary’s sustained growth and ensure the long-term benefits of housing, connectivity and ridership can be maximized.”
Cost overruns have been a concern for some critics of the project, who called for a pause and a new scope to not include the downtown tunnel and instead push the line further south to Seton.
“This is a short stub of a line that isn’t going to serve citizens,” said Steve Allan with Rethink The Green Line Committee.
Ultimately, city council voted 10-5 in favour of the changes with counsellors Sonya Sharp, Dan McLean, Jennifer Wyness, Sean Chu and Andre Chabot voting against.
“We are paying far more for far less of the system,” Sharp said in her debate. “If you were generally in favour of building transit, you would not have been starting with the most expensive, riskiest part and barely adding ridership.”
However, some councillors said building the “core” of the Green Line first would allow for future extensions both south and north.
“The reality is, if we don’t do this now with the money that we have committed, we will never connect the north with the south,” said Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra during the debate.
The decision comes after city council spent nearly the entire day behind closed doors debating the recommendations for the line.
According to the city, the changes will require new agreements with both the federal and provincial governments before construction can start later this year.
In a letter to Mayor Gondek dated Monday, the Government of Alberta said its commitment of $1.5 billion wouldn’t be impacted provided the revised alignment connects with the existing Red and Blue lines in the downtown core, and integrates with the provincial rail master plan and proposed “Grand Central Station” near the new arena.
In a separate letter, federal Housing and Infrastructure minister Sean Fraser said the federal government would need a revised business case by Aug. 15 to confirm its funding for the line.
“Let’s not forget, we still have to get to the north and all the way to the south,” Gondek said. “We continue to work with other orders of government to make sure we can get the funding in place, in a phased way to complete all of it.”