Expanding from a New Model: Line 204 Phase IV — 2031

With the previous three phases of Line 204 construction, a number of essential destinations in Calgary, ranging in scope from residential and retail services on the one hand to commercial, institutional, and industrial locations on the other, will be accessible to light rail transit services by direct connections and through interchanges with all three radial lines emanating from the downtown core. The only piece left in the puzzle will be that of creating a central loop that travels through all of the cardinal points in the circle to generate a complete bidirectional path across all of Calgary’s primary flanks. On the basis of the remaining termini on Line 204 — namely, Foothills Medical Station on the northwest end, and College Station on the southwest end — the 37 Street SW alignment suggests itself as a direct solution to the problem, worthy of the capital investment required on that basis alone, and one that also addresses the only orbital-to-radial light rail interchange left isolated from the core C-Train system at this juncture.

Starting from the Phase III terminus at College Station, Phase IV would continue underground to the northwest, running roughly beneath 45 Avenue SW to arrive after 400 metres at Glamorgan Station, where 37 Street SW meets Grafton Road. From there, the line would continue under 37 Street SW for 800 metres to Rutland Park Station, at the intersection with Richmond Road SW, and from there for 700 metres to Killarney Station, at the junction with 26 Avenue SW, before proceeding an additional 1,200 metres to jog slightly to the northeast and interchange with Line 202 at Westbrook Station. At that point, the line would work its way underneath Bow Trail and Spruce Drive SW for 1,200 metres to reach Spruce Cliff Station, at the intersection of Spruce Drive and Third Avenue SW, before descending to cross the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks, the Lawrey Gardens Natural Area, and the Bow River to arrive after 900 metres at Parkdale Station, at the intersection of Parkdale Boulevard and 29 Street NW, before proceeding generally underneath 29 Street NW for 1,200 metres to close the Line 204 circle at Foothills Medical Station.

The total capital investment required for the final buildout of Line 204 comes to $1,672-million, a figure that could be carried over thirty years in instalments of $84-million from 2032 onward, or financed through an MSI-equivalent funding mechanism from 2028 to 2031 in four instalments of $418-million. The details of the necessary capital investment are identified as follows:

37 Street Metro Track and Way of 6.40 km
@ $155-million per km: $992-million

plus six metro stations (Glamorgan, Rutland Park, Killarney, Westbrook, Spruce Cliff, Parkdale)
@ $92-million each: $552-million

Rolling Stock of 32 LRVs (Avanto)
@ $4-million each: $128-million

Aside from the immediate benefits of directly connecting the pre-existing northwest and southwest termini of Line 204 and of integrating the western leg of Line 202 into the resulting completely orbital light rail line, a number of ancillary benefits will also come into play with the full buildout of Line 204. All of the stations to be built between Mount Royal College and the south bank of the Bow River complement and respect the development and traffic management aims for the neighbourhoods to be served by the western arc of Line 204, with the Rutland Park and Killarney stations in particular reinforcing the objectives of the “Killarney Area Redevelopment Plan” to provide convenient access into and out of the community, discourage shortcuttingtraffic and minimize the negative traffic impacts resulting from new development” (City of Calgary, 1986c:27-28). At the same time, the connection across the Bow River to Parkdale and the Foothills Medical Centre will afford new opportunities for the Parkdale community to generate transit-orientated linkages “to surrounding communities, the regional pathway system, local and regional parks, transit stops and pedestrian crosswalks” (City of Calgary, 2004a:28) while respecting local sentiment favouring “pedestrian-orientated scale and massing” and Parkdale Boulevard’s role “as a gateway to Calgary” (2004a:28-29). Perhaps the most important effect of finishing the Line 204 loop, however, will be its ability to redistribute overall gains in passenger traffic to the broad benefit of the C-Train system as a whole; as the Madrid Public Transport Authority's Carlos Cristóbal-Pinto noted in his 2003 case study of the Madrid Metro, the completion of Madrid's orbital Line Six led to immediately discernable passenger redistribution effects in conjunction with a five-year rise of 22.5 percent in system-wide passenger levels (2003:6), indicating "big demand growth without any repercussions on peak hour" headway efficiency (2003:10). For all of these reasons, completing the western arc of Line 204 represents a substantial investment paying all the more substantial dividends for mass transit passengers and for all Calgarians.

Works Cited

City of Calgary (1986c). “Killarney/Glengarry Area Redevelopment Plan”. URL as of 26 Mar 2008 http://www.calgary.ca/docgallery/bu/planning/pdf/killarney_arp.pdf

City of Calgary (2004a). “Parkdale Special Planning Study”. URL as of 26 Mar 2008 http://www.calgary.ca/DocGallery/BU/planning/pdf/parkdale_special.pdf

Cristóbal-Pinto, Carlos (2003). “Madrid Case Study: Last Stretch of Metro Line 6,
Circle Line”. URL as of 22 Jul 2008 http://www.boku.ac.at/verkehr/05_05_Madrid_CRTM.pdf