DON’T TRIM GREEN LINE

The angry reaction to the revelation that the Green Line transit project will cover less than half the distance promised, for more than the amount of money first calculated, is understandable.

Calgarians had been told they’d receive a 46-kilometre transit line that traverses the entire length of the city for $4.5 billion. Now, we’re told the first phase of the project, to be built at a cost of $4.65 billion, will stretch just 20 kilometres.

Granted, some of the higher-than-expected costs can be attributed to council’s design decisions, such as construction of a tunnel under the Bow River, but the pared back project is an indictment of planning at city hall. Calgarians are left with the impression that the $4.5-billion estimate was pulled out of a hat and had little connection with reality.

“I think a lot of taxpayers will be asking themselves how this happened,” Calgary-Nose Hill MP Michelle Rempel says of the truncated LRT line.

“I suspect many suburban Calgarians who are desperate for access to the LRT are going to be asking some pretty tough questions about why they should accept such a massive reduction in scope, while the price tag for this project has ballooned. Further, all of this has happened before a shovel has even hit the ground.”

Rempell, who joined southeast MP Tom Kmiec and Ward 4 Coun. Sean Chu in criticizing the changes Sunday, is absolutely right. Council needs to find out why costs have escalated to such a worrisome extent.

The Green Line, as presented, was unacceptable, but was approved Monday evening.

One of the arguments for the project was the need to provide LRT service to the South Health Campus in Seton. The line will stop well short of Seton and other new communities when it opens in 2026, according to the latest plan — a fact that undermines the Green Line’s usefulness and viability.

Perhaps such a shortcoming would be tolerable if the remaining track was going to be put into place fairly quickly, but the city has no timeline for funding future stages. That means Calgarians who are left unserved by the Green Line’s first phase can have no confidence they’ll be connected to LRT at a reasonable point in the future.

Along with discovering why expenses have skyrocketed, council needs to reverse Monday’s decision and live up to the commitment it made to Calgarians.

The Green Line needs to run from North Pointe to Seton, even if the budget has to be boosted to accomplish that feat.

It is the fair thing to do.