City provides massive funding increase for Green Line LRT

Calgary City Council has approved a plan to significantly increase funding for the Green Line LRT project.

It will extend its current 10-year commitment of devoting $52 million per year toward the project by an additional 20 years.

The city’s total commitment has now been tripled from what was previously committed, reaching $1.56 billion.

However, the money is contingent on the provincial government committing the same amount of funds.

If the province matches the federal government’s pledge of $1.53 billion, it would get them to that $4.5 billion price tag.

Ward 12 Councillor Shane Keating was asked what kind of assurance taxpayers will get to prevent any cost overruns.

“The difficulty with the west LRT (202 Blue Line) is council did scope changes along the way and never accounted for the costing,” said Keating.

Jeff Binks, President of LRT on the Green and advocate for the project, said the new line will benefit everyone.

“This will serve 300,000 people on opening day with a daily ridership of 90,000 people,” he said. “It will have a huge impact on our city for those that use the green line, that live on the green line, and for those that rely on Deerfoot Trail as it will remove a significant amount of traffic.”

“This is a very good day for the citizens of Calgary, and another important step forward to seeing the project get built.”

The motion passed by a vote of 10-4 with Councillors Magliocca, Pootmans, Chabot and Colley-Urquhart against.

 

 

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today