A city committee has selected its preferred path for the Green Line LRT to travel through Calgary’s downtown core, after nearly two years of back and forth on the project’s alignment.
The city’s executive committee was presented three options for the route Tuesday, and ultimately voted in favour of a surface alignment down 10 Avenue S.W. ending at a station between 1 and 2 Street S.W.
That option, which fits within the project’s current budget, was supported 12-1 with Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness as the sole vote opposed.
“I will admit, this is the first time I will actually vote to support the Green Line,” Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said during his debate.
“There will always be a reason we can come up with to delay, but there’s not going to be a time when it’s cheaper to build.”
According to project officials, 22 downtown alignments have been studied between 2016 and 2024; three were shortlisted after city council tasked administration with seeking alternate routes through the core.
The first option in front of committee — the province’s preferred alignment — included an elevated track running above 10 Avenue S.W. and turning north above 2 Street S.W.
A study from project officials showed it would have the highest ridership at 51,000 daily trips, but it would cost $1 billion over available funding to reach 7 Avenue, in order to connect with the Red and Blue line LRTs.
The second option was also an elevated route above 10 Avenue, but would turn north up 1 Street S.E. with costs exceeding the available budget by $500 million.
“It’s obvious to me that Option 1 and Option 2 require money we simply do not have,” argued Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly.
Project officials told committee the options needed to align with support from the LRT’s funding partners, as well as respond to concerns from stakeholders including potential impacts to businesses in the area.
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Original plans had the Green Line tunnelling under the downtown core, but those were scrapped after the province pulled its $1.5 billion share of funding after significant cost escalations with the route.
The previous city council ultimately approved the revised alignment for the project in early 2025, which allowed construction to begin on the southeast leg of the line from Shepard to Victoria Park.
As construction continues on the southeast leg of the line, project officials said Tuesday a decision would allow the downtown segment to proceed to the next stage of planning, design and procurement.
However, the alignment still requires approval from city council as a whole, as well as from the provincial and federal governments — the $6.2-billion project’s other funding partners.
“It is our belief we will be meeting the conditions of the funding agreement,” said Green Line director Wendy Tynan.
“If our funding partners do not agree with the path forward, that’s when we come back to council because the city on its own cannot afford this project.”
Tynan said there have been informal conversations to notify the other orders of government about the potential change in direction.
The new alignment has raised concerns for Ward 3 Coun. Andrew Yule about future connections to north Calgary, where the city is implementing bus-rapid transit in lieu of the Green Line.
Yule added an amendment to explore the costs of fully building out the MAX Green BRT line from Keystone to downtown.
“I can’t rely on sunshine and rainbows, I have to do something that’s actually going to be effective for Ward 3 residents,” Yule told reporters about hope for a north Green Line segment. “To me, that’s amplifying the schedule for the MAX Green BRT.”
Another amendment from Ward 8 Coun. Nathaniel Schmidt that looked at public realm and surface planning was also approved by committee.
Six projects are currently under construction along the southeast leg of the project including a maintenance and storage facility, an elevated guideway over Blackfoot Trail, and a realignment along Ogden Road.
Project officials said costs are aligned with project estimates with $209 million in awarded contract value so far.
$2.2 billion in costs have been committed to date with project officials on track to spend $400 million this year alone.
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