Calgary council backs Green Line at-grade downtown route, ends years of debate

Calgary city council voted 12-2 Tuesday to approve the Green Line's revised downtown alignment, stopping at an at-grade station on 10th Avenue at 2nd Street S.W. in the Beltline instead of extending north through the downtown core as originally planned.

The at-grade solution is the only option buildable within the project's current $6.24-billion funding envelope. An elevated track would add $500 million; an underground tunnel would add $1 billion. The southeast section of the Green Line, which construction began on in 2025 and extends from Shepard to Victoria Park, is slated to be operational by 2031.

The city is responsible for $2.9 billion of Phase 1's budget, plus any cost overruns. The province is contributing just over $1.7 billion and the federal government $1.64 billion. "We need to get this done," Mayor Jeromy Farkas said after the vote, adding the city is not stopping with the Green Line but will continue extensions on the Blue and Red lines.

Two councillors voted against the motion. Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness called the new alignment "the least bad option" and reiterated the previous council's preference for a below-ground tunnel through downtown, which the provincial government has refused to support. Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal voted against because the proposed alignment's budget estimate is speculative — the city has not done detailed engineering or design work to confirm the actual price tag. Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean was absent for the vote.