Valley Line LRT | TransEd/Marigold | City of Edmonton

[Out of Towner]

Calgary has a leadership crisis imho.

Dreeshen said the province’s funding contribution was never a blank cheque, and called the truncated alignment approved by council on July 30 an “irresponsible waste of taxpayer dollars.”
“The province promised funding for a line servicing hundreds of thousands of Calgarians in southeast Calgary, not a stub line barely reaching out of downtown,” he wrote on X.
“Should the city change its mind and decide to build a Green Line that serves the needs of Calgary commuters, our provincial contribution remains on the table.

While council also expressed interest in transferring the Green Line’s management and financial risk to the Alberta government, Smith insisted the province has no intention of taking over the project.
“We want to be partners but we don’t want to take over the transit system,” she said. “We want to be able to fund a Green Line that was originally pitched to us, going out to Seton.
“It has to be integrated into Calgary city transit.”

 

[Didama]

The mess in Calgary can be partially blamed on lots of different people/entities. But the cancellation is square on the UCP.... there would have been a better option. $2.1b down the drain for absolutely nothing is just a travesty. And whatever route 'Frat Boy Dreeshen' dreams up will not go downtown and likely cost just as much, or more. Poor Calgary indeed

 

[dkazzed]

How much of the Green Line could they have gotten finished for $6.2 billion had they started in 2019 or even earlier? When were they shovel ready? This is a failure from Kenney to shelve the line, but could Notley's government have provided provincial funding earlier than election year and made sure the line was built?

 

[Airboy]

I wouldn't put it past the UCP to cut funding for the Capital line south extension.

 

[Out of Towner]

The mess in Calgary can be partially blamed on lots of different people/entities. But the cancellation is square on the UCP.... there would have been a better option. $2.1b down the drain for absolutely nothing is just a travesty. And whatever route 'Frat Boy Dreeshen' dreams up will not go downtown and likely cost just as much, or more. Poor Calgary indeed

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.

 

[Tropical]

I wouldn't put it past the UCP to cut funding for the Capital line south extension.

Highly doubtful - but within the bell curve of possibilities.

 

[Out of Towner]

Highly doubtful - but within the bell curve of possibilities.

If the Capital line south extension terminates at the most expensive high rise condo community in the city with an expensive underground station quickly shuttling its residents downtown then expect funding for the Capital line to be cut too.

 

[Barnaby]

I wouldn't put it past the UCP to cut funding for the Capital line south extension.

The Capital Line South isn't one of the worst designed LRT lines in Canada. Neither is the Valley Line, frankly.

 

[BASE]

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.

 

[Habibfazil]

I wouldn't put it past the UCP to cut funding for the Capital line south extension.

why, has the city cut the line back from the original agreement?

 

[Habibfazil]

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.

Thanks for the readers digest on this one, lots of blood on lots of hands on this one...

 

[yeggator]

I wouldn't put it past the UCP to cut funding for the Capital line south extension.

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.

 

[HappyJazzz]

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.

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.

 

[mBertan]

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.

Former mayor’s perspective:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1836903332277014741

 

[Barnaby]

Former mayor’s perspective:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1836903332277014741

I do not disagree with a thing he said. But the design of the tunnels to work with LRVs was idiotic from the start. If you're spending this much on a necessary tunnel, you better have the capacity potential of high floor trains, like Edmonton's subway does.