City bureaucrats questioned over west LRT spur line snub

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City bureaucrats handcuffed future plans for an LRT spur line to Mount Royal University when they ignored council direction nearly a decade ago, a Calgary councillor is charging.

The city’s transportation committee on Wednesday was presented with potential transit options that would connect the west LRT, also known as the Blue Line, to the school of some 12,000 students just five kilometres to the south.

Council had asked administration last year to explore the feasibility of building a spur line to the university, but planners said attaching a line to the university would require rebuilding the underground portion of the line west of Westbrook Station, which would come with a price tag of $100 million and lead to a year’s worth of community disruption.

Instead, officials suggest the best option would be a low-floor streetcar line that would connect the university to the Blue Line, though its future is questionable given it will join a queue of millions in unfunded transit projects.

Area Coun. Brian Pincott questioned bureaucrats over why they seemingly ignored council direction when the alignment of the west LRT was finalized in 2008, which called for engineers to rough in space in the line’s underground tunnel for a future spur line to Mount Royal.

“The final alignment was designed to allow for an LRT spur to connect to Mount Royal without disrupting service,” Pincott said, addressing transportation officials.

“It seems that was left out. How did that happen?

“The intent of the council direction was to avoid what you’re telling us we now need to do.”

Chris Jordan, Calgary Transit’s manager of strategic planning, said he’s not sure why the plan was scrapped, though he expects it may have had something to do with the ballooning costs of the $1.4-billion project.

“What I suspect is, there were tremendous cost pressures on the west LRT and it’s possible it wasn’t incorporated because of that,” he said.

Pincott noted that while serving Mount Royal with mass transit is critical, the area is also seeing major residential growth at the former Currie Barracks, as well as becoming a large employment hub.

“You’ll be looking at 20,000 to 25,000 residents and probably in the same region of jobs within a five-minute walk,” he said, adding it also hurts potential redevelopment options along 37th Street S.W., along which the spur line would have connected to the university.

“The options are limited because of the fact council direction was ignored years ago.”

Committee members heard a streetcar option would cost about half as much as an LRT spur line, and the vehicles would be able to either mesh with existing traffic or be provided a reserved right-of-way.

Jordan told councillors the streetcar option could also be used to connect communities to other LRT lines, and would be part of public engagement should the project move forward in the future.

“We’d have the ability to have people suggest other areas where these could operate,” he said.

The west streetcar plan will be included in an updated Calgary Transportation Plan, which administration expects to revisit next year with a revised version, including project priority list, aiming to be in place by 2019.

slogan@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @ShawnLogan403