The Green Line vision – by its name tied to ‘Climate Change’ – was conceptualized in 2016 with lots of justification and talk about Calgary expanding by hundreds of thousands of people, and how this new line transporting people to all life’s events would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and road congestion. The Line would eventually channel riders from the ‘deep south’ to the ‘far north’ with a possibility of later adding a small jog off to the airport. Apparently, the thought was that by 2076 Calgary would attract 1.3 million more residents, so with greenhouse gas and congestion in mind this expansive line would be necessary. It would of course have to pass through the centre of downtown through several tunnels, under the river and north. The feds got excited about talk of a ‘Green Trip Fund’ and commit to a $1.56 billion contribution over 30 years along with the City and the province each making a matching contribution. Apparently, Calgary will never reach full potential as a global city without it, and owning a vehicle would then become a choice but not a necessity!
While we all agree that a transit system is necessary for a city, it became clear the magnitude of this plan was intended to be more than a transit system – it would also be used to shape the way the city would develop in the future. The language for selling everyone on the idea became more about ‘transit oriented lifestyles’ adding to economic resiliency, reducing our carbon footprint, and even led to someone calculating a reduction of 5,200 tons of carbon dioxide annually. The budget that started at roughly $4.5 billion experienced several revisions, and by 2022 had increased to $5.5 billion just for the first leg to downtown. Shockingly, a new potential $20 billion dollar figure was the last number I heard on the street for the full build.
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