With the bulk of the time and effort in constructing Line 206 already accomplished in its initial phase, further extensions to the east and west could be accomplished with substantially less effort, and with substantial network-wide benefits. To the west of Bowness lie Canada Olympic Park, a complex of athletic facilities maintained in the wake of the 1988 Olympic Winter Games, and the residential community of Valley Ridge, a lower-density development designed to accommodate 6,000 residents upon its completion (City of Calgary, 1991:4). To the east, on the other hand, lies the bedroom community of Chestermere, a rapidly expanding town whose current population of 10,000 is projected to rise to 15,000 by 2010 and to 24,000 by 2015 (Bunt and Associates, 2007:21), and of whose residents nearly two-thirds — 65.7 percent of 1,264 respondents in a recently commissioned survey (Town of Chestermere, 2008:19) — commute to Calgary for their regular employment. Serving this broad mix of mature and emerging residential populations is an eminently reasonable use of mass transit in the broader context of a long-range light rail service plan for Calgary.
The eastern extension of Line 206 would be a relatively simple affair, proceeding in a dedicated surface right of way in the median of 17 Avenue SE for 1,100 metres from Forest Lawn Station to Elliston Park Station, at the intersection with 61 Street SE, and then for 3,800 metres to Garden Road Station and for 3,200 metres to Rainbow Road Station, before terminating at a 2,000 metre distance at Chestermere Station, at the junction with West Chestermere Drive. While the western extension of Line 206, on the other hand, would be somewhat more complex, it would be eminently feasible to continue from Bowness Station along Bowness Road NW to 83 Street NW, tunnelling under 16 Avenue NW to arrive after 1,500 metres at Canada Olympic Park Station before continuing on an alignment on the southern flank of the Transcanada Highway and tunnelling underneath it once more to terminate after a distance of 2,600 metres at Valley Ridge Station, where Valley Ridge Boulevard meets Valley Ridge Drive NW.
The total capital investment required for the final buildout of Line 206 comes to $593-million, a figure that could be carried over thirty years in instalments of $30-million from 2040 onward, or financed through an MSI-equivalent funding mechanism from 2037 to 2039 in three instalments of $198-million. The details of the necessary capital investment are identified as follows:
Bowness/Forest Lawn Metro Track and Way of 1.00 km
@ $155-million per km: $155-million
Bowness/Forest Lawn Surface Track and Way of 10.00 km
@ $25-million per km: $250-million
plus six surface stations (Valley Ridge, Canada Olympic Park, Elliston Park, Garden Road, Rainbow Road, Chestermere)
@ $10-million each: $ 60-million
Rolling Stock of 32 LRVs (Avanto)
@ $4-million each: $128-million
As beneficial as this second and final phase of Line 206 will be to destinations on the west side of Calgary, the merits of its eastward continuation to Chestermere are clearer still. The new station at Canada Olympic Park is situated to take maximum advantage of the core commercial planning area as identified in the “Canada Olympic Park and Adjacent Lands Area Structure Plan” by connecting C-Train passengers with the pedestrian facilities within that sector (City of Calgary, 2005a:14). Furthermore, the central location of the new station at Valley Ridge will minimise the “topographic constraints” inherent to the area that would otherwise compromise the provision of connecting transit services to local area residents (City of Calgary, 1991:33). Those points being made, the advantages of the westward extension of Line 206 pale in comparison to those of providing C-Train service to Chestermere: In an environment where 77.5 percent of 1,307 survey respondents either somewhat or strongly supported the expansion of roadway and public transit networks in Chestermere (Town of Chestermere, 2008:14), and in a municipality facing daily traffic of 21,000 vehicles through Highway 1A, its primary traffic artery, in a mere seven years (Bunt and Associates, 2007:27), it should come as little surprise that 56.3 percent of 1,340 survey respondents would be open to the sort of “apples and oranges” mix of residential uses (Town of Chestermere, 2008:11) that would make transit-orientated development, and by extension the long-range provision for light rail service, a viable possibility for Chestermere to the benefit of town residents and Calgarians alike.
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