City picks proposed Beltline and Ramsay Green Line route

City officials have finally settled on a route that will connect the 46-kilometre Green Line LRT through a tiny, tricky inner-city stretch of land between the Beltline and Inglewood/Ramsay.

After months of evaluation and engagement, the Green Line team will recommend to elected officials later this month an alignment that would see the train line jog north underground from the Centre Street station on 12th Avenue S. to 10th Avenue S., where it would come above ground and run parallel to the CP train tracks.

The question of how to connect the train between Macleod Trail S.E. and the future Inglewood/ Ramsay station has plagued officials for months.

Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra called the proposed solution good news on Thursday.

“It does all things for all communities and I’m excited by it,” Carra said.

“This is underground. This is away from traffic. This is in no way gumming up the city streets. This is in no way compromising the public realm. It does everything we want it to do.”

The recommended alignment would also complement the under-negotiation Plan B for a new Flames arena, considered for a parking lot north of the existing Saddledome on a two-block site in Victoria Park.

“For the Stampede, they don’t have the issues of 12th Avenue getting gummed up with transit and you, in fact, get people walking out of the train and walking a couple blocks past restaurants and stuff to the new event centre and along Stampede Way,” Carra said.

The alignment decision comes after Ramsay residents were shocked and outraged in February to learn the Green Line team was reconsidering a street-level alignment on MacDonald Avenue S.E. that would cut their historic neighbourhood in two.

Then, in April, residents were surprised when the city quietly added two more alignment options for consideration, including the option the Green Line team has now settled on.

Last month, council voted to move forward with Stage 1 of the 46-kilometre Green Line, a 14-station

This is underground, this is away from traffic, this is in no way gumming up the city streets.

route that will stretch from 16th Avenue in Crescent Heights to Shepard and is estimated to cost $4.65 billion, excluding millions in annual debt servicing.

Council is set to debate next week a notice of motion from Ward 12 Coun. Shane Keating that asks city administration to investigate a contracting strategy and procurement plan that could ensure more of the transit line is constructed in the first phase, without increasing the price tag.

“This motion is about finding ways to maximize the value we will get from our expected Stage 1 funding envelope. I want us to collectively find ways to build more of the line, not less of the line,” Keating wrote in a blog post about his pitch.