Green Line downtown route back under review
City council votes to reconsider tunnel option after public backlash against elevated track plan.
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Calgary's $6.24-billion Green Line is headed back to the drawing board for its downtown segment. City councillors voted Tuesday to explore alternative route alignments after overwhelming opposition from businesses and property owners along the proposed path.
The decision reopens the tunnel option, which the provincial government previously rejected because it would add $1 billion to the project's cost. Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean argued the baseline proposal for an elevated track above the Beltline and downtown simply won't work.
"This train has already left the station, folks. It's rolling down the track and we can't derail it now," McLean said before the vote.
While 65 per cent of Calgarians expressed some support for the elevated option in a recent survey, the vast majority of businesses and property owners directly affected opposed it. The city will return in September with updated options. Southeast construction on the Green Line has been underway for nearly a year.
The province restored its $1.7 billion in funding last year after the city agreed to the elevated plan, but the renewed friction signals a harder path ahead.