Valley Line LRT | TransEd/Marigold | City of Edmonton

Might not be a popular opinion but I do think it's fair for partners to examine their participation in a project when the costs and scope alter drastically. Fair to say the capital line extension removed the elevated station at Ellerslie but this was to preserve a budget and arguably a much more minor change than what the green line saw.
 
Out of Towner said:
The Calgary Herald has an article documenting how their green line went off the rails. It goes back well over a decade and it's obvious that Calgary city council never had a clear idea of what the objective was. It started as a bus route, morphed into a LRT project going south, then north, then south again, then underground downtown, and in the mean time the cost kept escalating and the length of the line kept getting shorter and not servicing the people that it was originally intended to. Finally, the Province said enough is enough and pulled their funding and told the city to build it themselves which the city cannot do on its budget. A story of champagne tastes on a beer budget.
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Thanks for the readers digest on this one, lots of blood on lots of hands on this one...
 
Airboy said:
I wouldn't put it past the UCP to cut funding for the Capital line south extension.
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I doubt that would happen. The Capital Line did go over budget , yes, but by around $200 million, with the city covering the shortfall. Moreover, the scope of the project didn’t change.
The Green Line not only went way over-budget, but massively decreased in scope, to the point of not serving the ridings in southeast Calgary that voted UCP. More than the cost overruns, the whittling-down of the initial operating segment incurred the wrath of the province and killed the project.
 
yeggator said:
I doubt that would happen. The Capital Line did go over budget , yes, but by around $200 million, with the city covering the shortfall. Moreover, the scope of the project didn’t change.
The Green Line not only went way over-budget, but massively decreased in scope, to the point of not serving the ridings in southeast Calgary that voted UCP. More than the cost overruns, the whittling-down of the initial operating segment incurred the wrath of the province and killed the project.
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It's unreal how far off the rails that project went... It's like Calgary saw the California HSR gong show and said "hold my beer"!

If they had built the SE busway that was originally proposed it would have been in service ages ago..

Something needs to be done to keep politicians from meddling in large scale plans like that. A good transit network shouldn't be getting compromised by vote buying.
 
yeggator said:
I doubt that would happen. The Capital Line did go over budget , yes, but by around $200 million, with the city covering the shortfall. Moreover, the scope of the project didn’t change.
The Green Line not only went way over-budget, but massively decreased in scope, to the point of not serving the ridings in southeast Calgary that voted UCP. More than the cost overruns, the whittling-down of the initial operating segment incurred the wrath of the province and killed the project.
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Former mayor’s perspective:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1836903332277014741
 
mBertan said:
Former mayor’s perspective:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1836903332277014741
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Not a bad deflection of any responsibility by Nenshi, but to begin with, does the CP mainline still need to be hauling freight through the middle of downtown Calgary? Doesn't Nenshi admit that the stumbling block to a cheaper surface line is the CP mainline? Using some of CP's right of way for the green line pretty much ensures that freight trains are going to be rumbling through downtown Calgary for years to come. If Nenshi is the smartest guy in every room then why didn't he work with with CP on a plan to move their mainline to an industrial area of the city and then there wouldn't be the need to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions tunneling underground. Kill two birds with one stone. Move the mainline out of downtown and save money on a surface line. Unfortunately that comes back to bite Nenshi because under his watch a pile of money was spent on an underpass beneath the CP main line on 4th street. So it all comes back to not having a clear plan forward from the very beginning.
 
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Out of Towner said:
Not a bad deflection of any responsibility by Nenshi, but to begin with, does the CP mainline still need to be hauling freight through the middle of downtown Calgary? Doesn't Nenshi admit that the stumbling block to a cheaper surface line is the CP mainline? Using some of CP's right of way for the green line pretty much ensures that freight trains are going to be rumbling through downtown Calgary for years to come. If Nenshi is the smartest guy in every room then why didn't he work with with CP on a plan to move their mainline to an industrial area of the city and then there wouldn't be the need to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions tunneling underground. Kill two birds with one stone. Move the mainline out of downtown and save money on a surface line. Unfortunately that comes back to bite Nenshi because under his watch a pile of money was spent on an underpass beneath the CP main line on 4th street. So it all comes back to not having a clear plan forward from the very beginning.
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Oh 100% deflection for sure, and a convenient way to slag the UCP while he was at it.

The bus way would have b een done, but the added costs in labour and busses would be brutal. Rerouting the CPR (the yards too?), nice theory, but they are tough to deal with, and it wouldn't be cheap...
 
IMG_7834.jpeg


Temporary supports being erected for the west section of the guideway.
Side note, this is a valley line west thread, not a green line / political thread. Where are the mods ?
 
I'm not up on the historical background on how CN's mainline was relocated but it has to be regarded as a huge success for the city and for CN. 104 is now an important urban corridor and with space becoming a growing issue at the port of Vancouver, CN has the opportunity to unload more containers in its yard rather than having freight loaded and trucked from Vancouver.
 
Out of Towner said:
I'm not up on the historical background on how CN's mainline was relocated but it has to be regarded as a huge success for the city and for CN. 104 is now an important urban corridor and with space becoming a growing issue at the port of Vancouver, CN has the opportunity to unload more containers in its yard rather than having freight loaded and trucked from Vancouver.
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also a missed golden opportunity to run lrt or a brt down 97th, across the yards across the high level on one branch down the former CPR, another branch further west and one more out to st albert all with a terminal at the old CN Tower station...
 
Out of Towner said:
Not a bad deflection of any responsibility by Nenshi, but to begin with, does the CP mainline still need to be hauling freight through the middle of downtown Calgary? Doesn't Nenshi admit that the stumbling block to a cheaper surface line is the CP mainline? Using some of CP's right of way for the green line pretty much ensures that freight trains are going to be rumbling through downtown Calgary for years to come. If Nenshi is the smartest guy in every room then why didn't he work with with CP on a plan to move their mainline to an industrial area of the city and then there wouldn't be the need to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions tunneling underground. Kill two birds with one stone. Move the mainline out of downtown and save money on a surface line. Unfortunately that comes back to bite Nenshi because under his watch a pile of money was spent on an underpass beneath the CP main line on 4th street. So it all comes back to not having a clear plan forward from the very beginning.
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Okay, but where would you move the freight rail alignment? The Bow Valley is the only way out of Calgary that climbs at a small enough grade for freight trains. And once you’ve gone just east of Crowchild where it crosses the river, how would you re-route it without ploughing through the inner city?
 
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