New Green Line LRT alignment expected from province in coming weeks

The province's new, above-groundplan for Calgary's Green Line LRTwill beready in a matter of weeks,Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors Devin Dreeshensaid Friday.

The Alberta government hiredinfrastructure consulting firm AECOM to create a new downtown alignment for the transit expansion project by the end of the year.

This came after a tumultuoussaga that saw the province and the City of Calgaryengaged in a war of words, incited by the Alberta government's decision to withdraw its portion of fundingfor the city's alignmentin September.

Calgary city council voted to wind-down its plan for the Green Line weeks later, announcingthe board that oversaw the project would be dissolved.

After some talks,the province and cityannounced a portion of the Green Line projectwould be moving forward while the province awaited AECOM's new alignment. Green Line CEO DarshpreetBhattileft the project at the end of October.

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Dreeshen saidhe met with Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek,the Calgary Downtown Association and members of the construction industry about the Green Line on Friday.

"Our hope is to go to Shepard and hopefully even farther south tothe hospital, to Seton," Dreeshen told reporters at a passenger rail engagement forum in Calgary Friday.

"But we'll see when that new alignment comes outin the coming weeks."

He said he received direct feedback from Calgary businessesaboutthe transit project at that meeting.

"It was good. It was a really positive meeting to know thatthe provinceis serious about building the Green Line," he said, addingthat the new downtown alignment, which is expected tobe at-grade or elevated, will bringchange to the area.

"But theystress that even with elevated, it's still you want to have a good streetlevel experience in the downtown core."

Dreeshen once again emphasized the province's desire to see the Green Line forgo tunneling through Calgary's downtown in favour of an above-ground track that links to a transit hub atthe city's newevent centre, which is currently being built.

Premier Danielle Smith indicated thather vision for the transit hub would be amulti-tiered buildingthat resembles Toronto's Union Station.

At the same passenger rail forum Friday, she said that she imaginedthestation would be at least partiallyunderground and wouldbe able to accommodate different types of trains and buses.

"One of the things that I remember from my visit[to Toronto] is that there's different floors for different types of rail. Because remember, light rail is different than heavy rail, and so those are going to be different tracks," Smith said.

"If you go to Metrolinx, you'll see that they actually have bays where the buses are able to go in as well.... You canenter into the station from multiple different points and be underground and covered, which is really important in our cold weather."

She added that she doesn't want to rule out other possibilities forwhat form the transit hub could take, but appeared optimistic thathaving one place where various train and bus lines cometogether would work.

Smithwill meet with Gondek and city officials on Monday to chat more about the Green Line. Gondek said Friday she had no comment about the transit project.

The premier said she hopes she and Gondek will be able to see eye-to-eye on an above-ground alignment for Calgary's new train line to reduce thecost of the project.

"One of the things that AECOM had told us is that Austin [Texas] went through a very similar process of trying to tunnel and it became so expensive that they brought them in to reimagine how it could be done," Smith said.

She addedit will cost about $1billion per kilometreof track to buildunderground, about $300 million per kilometre for an elevated line and about $100 million perkilometreto buildat-grade.

"So it just standsto reason, if we can find a way to do above-ground elevated or above-ground at-grade, we'll be able to build longer for the same budget.... I hope we have a meeting of the minds on that."