It is possible to infer from documents such as the City of Calgary’s “City Hall Area Redevelopment Plan” that the long-range objective for C-Train service through the city centre will involve separate, dedicated metro lines for any light rail line serving the downtown core, to the point of designing the City Hall metro station from a standing start as an interchange between Line 201 and Line 202 (City of Calgary, 1982:30). The vision for this system, as matters stood in 1982, was for Line 201 and Line 202 to meet at City Hall, with Line 201 following the Stephen Avenue Metro described elsewhere in this document, and with Line 202 continuing in a separate metro constructed underneath Seventh Avenue South. Such a line would doubtlessly be technically feasible, accounting for the necessity of interchanging between stations along Line 201 and 202 through the downtown core, and such a line would have the added benefit of paving over the gap between Calgary’s East Village district and its downtown core by bringing a substantial portion of Line 202’s approach to City Hall below the surface. At the same time, it is worth investigating both the option to construct the envisaged Seventh Avenue Metro and the option to multiply one’s force by stacking both metros one atop the other underneath Stephen Avenue, if only to explore possible efficiencies in interchanging and system-wide connectivity.
In the interest of facilitating passenger transfers to the greatest possible extent between Line 201 in the Stephen Avenue Metro and Line 202 in the Seventh Avenue Metro, the latter underground service would operate in parallel with its Stephen Avenue counterpart. Using the roughed-in City Hall Station as a starting point (City of Calgary, 1982:28-30), and bearing in mind the investigation already under way by the city, the Seventh Avenue Metro would continue west for approximately 200 metres to Museum Station, east of Centre Street, to serve the Glenbow Museum and adjacent hotels. From that point, the Seventh Avenue Metro would arrive after a distance of approximately 400 metres at Bankers’ Hall Station, serving adjacent retail and commercial developments and acting as the downtown core’s primary interchange station. At a distance of approximately 300 metres due west would be Fifth Street Station, also serving a number of adjacent retail and commercial developments. The final station on the Seventh Avenue Metro would be approximately 500 metres west at Century Garden Station, serving retail, commercial, and recreational uses between Seventh and Eighth Streets SW. Line 202 trains would then surface at a portal in the vicinity of Tenth Street SW to connect with the Eleventh Street Station already planned for revenue service on the route, and continue westward from that point. While Bankers’ Hall Station would, as noted, serve as the primary interchange station in the downtown core, all of the stations on the Seventh Avenue Metro would, as noted, maintain connections to Line 201 stations on the Stephen Avenue Metro.
The total capital investment required for the Seventh Avenue Metro comes to $757-million, a figure that could be carried over thirty years in instalments of $38-million from 2025 onward, or financed through an MSI-equivalent funding mechanism from 2021 to 2024 in four instalments of $189-million. The details of the necessary capital investment are identified as follows:
Seventh Avenue Metro:
$233-million
plus five metro stations (City Hall, Museum, Bankers’ Hall, Fifth Street, Century Garden)
@ $92-million each: $460-million
Rolling Stock of 16 LRVs (SD-160)
@ $4-million each: $ 64-million
The overall benefit to completing the Seventh Avenue Metro would approximate the scale of completing the Stephen Avenue Metro, so that Line 202 could also increase peak-hour passenger throughput from its current level of 7,255 passengers per hour per direction on three-car trains running at five-minute headways to an absolute maximum of 36,000 passengers per hour per direction on five-car trains running at two-minute headways (Calgary Transit, 2008c; Siemens Transportation Systems, 2005:1). These enhancements to the effectiveness of the C-Train system as a network would also afford opportunities for more reliable system-wide connectivity and enhanced passenger satisfaction with the service. Only one critical question remains, that question being whether it is technically and fiscally feasible to construct a “stacked” metro in which Line 202 runs underneath Line 201 beneath Stephen Avenue; the benefit of being able to transfer between levels from Line 201 to Line 202 and vice-versa along the same corridor needs to be weighed against the structural and geophysical risks of building metro systems to 25-metre depths through downtown Calgary.
Works Cited
Calgary Transit (2008c). “LRT Technical Data”. URL as of 25 Mar 2008 http://www.calgarytransit.com/html/technical_information.html
City of Calgary (1982). “City Hall Area Redevelopment Plan”. URL as of 25 Mar 2008 http://www.calgary.ca/docgallery/bu/planning/pdf/city_hall_arp.pdf
Siemens Transportation Systems (2005). “SD160 Light Rail Vehicle, Calgary, Canada: Technical Information”. URL as of 02 Apr 2008 http://www.sts.siemens.com/DS/SD160%20Calgary%20DS.pdf
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