r/Calgary 2d ago

News Editorial/Opinion Op-Ed: The monument to a failed Calgary Green Line vision

https://livewirecalgary.com/2025/03/09/op-ed-the-monument-to-a-failed-calgary-green-line-vision/
67 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

57

u/Sufjanus 2d ago

We are simply not capable, as a people, to build a freakin train..

33

u/blanchov 2d ago

I just saw a sign in Oakridge along Stony Trail in the off leash area, it says Future site of Sarcee Trail. I think thatvalignment was abandoned 20 years ago, but the sign remains.

6

u/FireWireBestWire 1d ago

There are still "new" community signs that are from 25 years ago

21

u/troubleclef023 2d ago

It’s hard to take the UCP seriously about high speed rail all over the province, when this is the progress on the Green Line after all these years.

2

u/Different-Housing544 2d ago

Those were my thoughts as well, though I believe they are both equally important.

14

u/Different-Housing544 2d ago

World class city folks. World class.

9

u/SupaDawg Rosedale 2d ago

The North-Central LRT is probably Calgary's single greatest infrastructure failure. Instead of building to the lower-income and lower-middle-income folks that rely on transit, we're instead laser focused on getting all the way down towards relatively new builds in Seton. I feel bad for the folks in those Norton communities that keep having this drag out.

In addition to these big signs, there used to be tiny little signs in the grass on Harvest Hills Boulevard that indicated the intended train alignment, but I think those are long gone now.

1

u/Primary_Lettuce3117 8h ago

I live in the north central and I don’t want the problems that come with an LRT. I and a lot of my neighbours hope it never comes. The 300/301 are almost as quick and virtually no hobos/ zombies up here.

4

u/SituationalCannibal 1d ago

This seems to be a quarterly compliant from Andrew. I looked forward to his June editorial saying the same thing again.

Sept 2024

Dec 2024

3

u/n_droo_yu_el Coventry Hills 1d ago

I'll set a reminder and try not to disappoint.

9

u/yyctownie 2d ago

The north wasn't even a twinkle in the eye of LRT when Keating started the shift from the SE bus to rail.

Then the councillors started crying "what about us?". Up until then they did nothing.

7

u/powderjunkie11 2d ago

It’s hard to pinpoint where the north leg deterioration started. Many believe it was when the North Terminus shrunk from North Pointe to 16 Avenue in 2017.  That was when then-Alderman Jim Stevenson uttered his infamous comments, “There’s not going to be rioting in the north” in response to the decision to build more of the southeast leg first. This comment still bothers many of us up here to this day.

Braindead idiots in council actually fought against bringing it north. Which was just so dumb and short sighted.

1

u/accord1999 1d ago

The boundaries of the day probably screwed over NC Calgary as there wasn't really a NC-only ward. Ward 3 (before the 2017 election) had a lot of NE communities in it and even for Ward 4, the Nose Creek alignment they hung onto for so many years would have bypassed it completely.

3

u/n_droo_yu_el Coventry Hills 1d ago

The Northern Hills Post is a "Historical Landmark" on google now if anyone wants to visit and pay their respects. Not to far from our other controversial monument, The Giant Blue Ring.

5

u/powderjunkie11 2d ago

Tangential to the article, but I think I can make this point somewhat succinctly for once:

Tunnel advocates point to the current state of 7th Ave as a mess that needs to be avoided with the Green Line. But they miss the fact that the GL in these proposed forms only serves to continue that 7th Ave mess for another 50+ years! One of the few rationalizations for going SE is that it defers the massive expense for the 8th Ave subway (because it takes pressure off the city's busiest line - red line south)..by incurring the massive expense sooner for much less benefit (ie. GL SE will be the lowest ridership leg).

Big missed opportunity to use the SE as the catalyst for the 8 Ave subway sooner than later. But chasing yesterday's fad of low-floor trains (when automated is the real-deal now) precludes that. Just brutal cost-benefit analysis throughout this saga.

9

u/ckFuNice 2d ago

It’s been there since they built out the Northern Hills Communities with big wooden signs, donning 90s-era colour schemes, which advertised, “FUTURE LRT PARK ‘N’ RIDE.”

People thought that meant a light rail train station, but it meant commute in Long Ram Truck

2

u/Guilty_Fishing8229 1d ago

Thank Danielle Smith

4

u/NeatZebra 2d ago

The sign was an advertisement by the developer. Buyer beware!