Nenshi leery of Green Line phase-in

Mayor concerned possible plan could lead to more delays in Green Line project

Phasing in the construction of the Green Line LRT wouldn’t be the best route to forge, Mayor Naheed Nenshi said Monday.

Nenshi said delaying completion of the 46-km north-south line would defeat its purpose of conveniently serving the largest number of commuters.

He was responding to a Postmedia story on an internal city document suggesting the $4.6 billion mega-project would be constructed in three stages, the first one being a core section running from Beddington in the north through the downtown to a proposed storage and maintenance facility at 130 Ave. S.E.

“You can’t really build it in a bunch of phases because in order for it to work, it has to go pretty far,” said Nenshi.

Most importantly that means reaching neighbourhoods in the far southeast, he said, including where its termination would be, the community of Seton.

“It needs the population, particularly on the southeast portion of the line,” said Nenshi. “There’s a lot of low population in between.”

But at the same time, the mayor said an initial 26.5 km phase outlined in the report would itself be a major step forward.

“That’s still almost as much LRT as we have in all of Calgary, that’s a very, very, very long line,” he said.

A decision on that approach and its route won’t be made until June, added the mayor.

Talk of further delays in the project are frustrating for an area of the city that’s seen LRT lines snake through other parts of Calgary, said Sami Amery, general manager of the McKenzie Towne Council.

“They were talking about our LRT before the southwest LRT line to 69 St. was built,” said Amery.

“The talk about LRT has lost a lot of traction here — people are seeing the most viable and cost effective way is rapid bus transit.”

Even so, an LRT would be greatly welcome by improving property values and travel convenience, he said.

“But I understand with the economy, resources are scarce,” said Amery.