A couple of days ago I recorded a podcast with (Dr.) Willem Klumpenhouwer! In response to the news of the Green Line shrinking its scope to finally secure itself a future. Folks have been rightly confused and frustrated about it, so I thought it was important to bring someone with experience in transit on to chat about the facts, and interpret what they mean for the project moving forward, and Calgary as a whole!
Check out the video if you haven’t already! Or listen along wherever you get your podcasts.
The incremental, core-first approach the Green Line board recommended has precedent — this is the same way we built the Blue and Red Lines back in their heyday. Though as Willem points out, even adjusting for inflation, we’ve never built an LRT line at this price point.
We’re parts we’re choosing to build today are by far the most expensive, with three river crossings and a tunnelled section below ground. There’s no viable way to avoid these costs, and so securing them now means a much more predictable and credible expansion process going further South, and across the Bow to the North.
But here’s hoping this incremental approach, and more involved procurement method will enable the Green Line to reach its full North Pointe to Seton vision at a quicker and more stable tempo. As well as enable the City to build and retain local talent in the rail construction industry, as we look forward to other municipal, and inter-city projects in the coming decades!
Resources
We talked about a lot during this video, and not all of it plays very nicely in a YouTube description! I’ve compiled some of the important points, and the research behind them here, so that you can get informed and keep exploring!
July 30, 2024 Meeting of Council - Minutes and Video
The updated budget recommendations from the Green Line Board are under Agenda item 7.20, and the updated phasing recommendations 12.2.3.
You can follow along with the item starting at 7:20:00 in the video, with final debates starting around 8:30:00. The presentations given to Council are available as PDFs, attached to their respective Agenda items when you click on them in the Minutes.
Mayor Gondek’s summary on Instagram
Actually quite good, I’m always using her Instagram as a reference for this kind of thing.
Transit Costs Project
Willem refers to this quite a bit throughout. A research team funded by the Marron Institute at NYU, looking into why comparable transit projects are more expensive in North America compared to basically anywhere else.
Opinion: Want to de-risk the Green Line? Build it now
Willem’s op-ed in the Herald from March 2024, arguing political uncertainty is spilling into cost overruns as investors and contractors factor risk into their costing.
Other Articles
More good, neutral, fact-based summaries on the topic (surprisingly uncommon) that are referenced in the podcast mostly in the form of quotes from Councillor Carra.
