Councillor hopes LRT will reach the north a decade sooner

Coun. Jyoti Gondek believes the overwhelming vote by city council in favour of the Green Line last Tuesdaywill ultimately bring the LRT to north central Calgary sooner than originally planned.

This week's historicvote on the Green Line stayed true to the vision of building the expensive central portion first in order to eventually get the LRT to both the far north and the far southeast.

• Calgary council votes to build the $5.5B Green Line

The first stage of the plan has been criticized by some for actually serving neither end out of the gate. The mayor points out Calgary's other two LRT lines didn't go from one end of the city to the other on opening day either.

But Gondek, who has actively lobbied since her 2017 election in favour of the Green Line heading north, did something earlier this month that caught many people by surprise.

Green Line advocate votedno

At the Green Line committee meeting on June 2, she joined four other councillors and voted against the revised alignment.

The revisions didn't alter the plan to take Stage 1 of the line from 16 Avenue North to Shepard station in the southeast.

But administration does want toshorten the tunnel, build a bridge over the Bow River downtown to get the line into north central Calgary and run the CTrain in the middle of Centre Street. The goal is to stay on budget.

So why vote no to something she previously supported?

Gondek points out that unlike other committees, it didn't matter whether the Green Line committee voted for or against administration's recommendation. Amendments were not allowedduring that meeting.

That could only happen when the matter went to council.

So Gondek said she voted no to signal she wanted changes to the recommendation by the time council discussed it.

She wanted more doneto get better transit service and eventually the LRT to her ward, which extends to Calgary's northern boundary.

"I picked up the phone on June 2and called a few of my colleagues and said listen, I don't think we are that far apart here," Gondek said.

"I think we can probably get to where we need to be, but without being able to put amendments at committee, I'm a little worried about the amendment show that will take place at council. So can we talk about what we need?"

Compromises bring changes

That led to talks and a trip by some council members to her ward to get a ground-level view of where the future Green Line would go.

That resulted in new recommendations.

Gondek freely admits she didn't get everything she wanted.

But she got enough to join the majority of her colleagues in voting yes to the revised Green Line. The vote was 14-1.

"The new recommendations very clearly give direction that the Green Line committee must now focus on the north and create a functional plan, do the mode progression to a better form of rapid transit over the current express system and create a mobility corridor that'll be ready for rail as soon as we get the money," said Gondek.

"That has never been in the cards for the north in the past and once I saw the new recommendations, I could get behind it."

The northern amendmentseven helped bring a long-time Green Line opponent, Coun. Joe Magliocca, to vote in favour of the project, as he said it would benefit some transit users in his ward.

How meaningful?

Other members of council say the amendedrecommendations onlyamountto some minor work and a study which may eventually set the table for better transit for the north. What's missing is the money.

The city will need $200 millionto build dedicated bus lanes, bridges and underpasses in the north end for a bus rapid transit (BRT) system like the Max Purple line on 17th Avenue S.E.

Still, Gondek estimates getting council to approve these conditions and implement an improvedBRT will result in better northern transit. It ultimately could mean LRT service sooner as well.

"Adding in the fact that we're focusing on the north and creating a functional plan probably puts us a decade ahead of where we would have been if we had not gotten that prioritization," she said.

Critics weigh in

However, the political optics of Gondek's strategy voting no at committee because she wanted council to more strongly signal support for the improved transit for the north came with a price.

On social media, Gondek was criticized for appearing to abandonthe Green Line project.

She said that was never her intent.

"I voted no to sending recommendations to council that I did not think were strong enough for the north. It was perceived as voting no to the project but sometimes, you need to do the right principled thing and just ignore the noise," Gondek said.

She recalleda difficult couple of weeks, especially getting an earful from those who don't understand the arcane world of council procedures.

"People want you to be a clear yes or a clear no because they don't want to think about the grey areas that I was frankly elected to wade through."

No money yet for extensions

Despite Gondek's northern focus, council is likely still going to be spending much of its LRT and transit time for the coming years on Stage 1 of the Green Line.

Besides design work, refiningdetails of precise station locations and getting through years of construction on the $5.5-billion megaproject, council will have to eventually turn to Stage 2.

Just as Gondek pushes to get that train line further north, there will bea push to go further into the southeast than theshopping area near Shepard station.

Going two stations further south wouldput the Green Line into a larger population in McKenzie Towne. But that short extension might cost $300 million.

Getting the CTrain to Gondek's ward in north Calgary will take significantly more money than that.

Take a look at the route for the Green Line below: