For many Calgarians, it’s a double source of frustration — sitting stuck in traffic while getting stuck with the rising expense of owning an automobile.
In September the provincial government gave some commuters who feel trapped in their cars something more to fume about by throwing a wrench in Calgary’s Green Line light-rail transit project.
Construction of the major piece of infrastructure four decades in the making would help reduce the financial woes of at least 50,000 households currently living in Calgary’s southeast, while providing faster, more comfortable public transit than buses.
But two months after the City of Calgary announced that the scope of the first phase of the Green Line LRT would be significantly reduced due to cost escalations, Devin Dreeshen, minister of transportation and economic corridors, characterized the project’s revised alignment as “an irresponsible waste of taxpayer dollars” and proceeded to withdraw the $1.53 billion in funding the province had committed to the LRT line.
Weeks later, Dreeshen commissioned a study to identify alternative alignments, a move that not only duplicates the city’s work and jeopardizes timely access to federal funding, but also acts against his own ministry’s mandate.
“Our province requires world-class transportation networks, infrastructure and economic corridors to grow our economy, improve Albertans’ quality of life and attract the best and brightest from around the world,” Premier Danielle Smith wrote in a mandate letter addressed to Dreeshen.
Stalling the Green Line LRT is unlikely to deliver on this ambitious vision.
The Ministry of Transportation and Economic Corridors didn’t respond to The Tyee’s request for comment on this issue.
Delays are only driving the project’s cost further — and Calgarians will pay the price.
They’ll pay in dollars first.
Statistics Canada estimates that the average Alberta household spends more than $10,000 annually in private transportation costs, but only $627 in public transit. For a family of three, the average family size in Calgary, the annual cost of transit passes for two adults and one youth adds up to roughly $4,000, creating $6,000 in yearly savings.
And they’ll pay in other ways, too.
“Public transit allows us to experience the city without pollution,” explained Francisco Alaniz Uribe, an associate professor at the University of Calgary’s school of architecture, planning and landscape.
“When people realize the benefits of taking transit, they tend to use it more,” he said. “Transit saves you money and gives you back time.”
Public transit as a money saver
In 2020, Leonor Bajaña and her husband decided to forgo car ownership and save about $8,000 annually in gas and maintenance costs for two vehicles.
“During the pandemic, there was a period of time that we didn’t drive, so we sold our cars,” Bajaña said. “We were putting the amount of money that we were saving in an investment account.”
They joined other Calgarians turning to public transit to try to make ends meet, or simply to make their lives less stressful. Spending on private transportation is the third-largest expense for Alberta homeowners, after food and shelter costs.
But public transit isn’t an option available to most Calgarians.
For close to two years the couple went without a car, but when Bajaña gave birth to their first child, not owning a car was no longer possible, especially after the growing family moved to Mahogany, a suburban community in Calgary’s southeast that’s part of the city’s long-term vision for the Green Line LRT.
“Once you have kids, you have to have a car,” Bajaña said, pointing at the difficulties of using Calgary Transit with a baby in tow, namely inconvenient travel times and long waits in the cold of winter.
Access to frequent transit in Mahogany is dismal, despite it being Calgary’s 10th most populated neighbourhood. So close to 90 per cent of the neighbourhood’s working-age residents drive to work.
In 2021, one in five households in Mahogany reported spending more than a third of their income in shelter costs, yet only 135 residents took public transit to work, as the savings afforded by public transit in Calgary are often offset by an inefficient service in the city’s suburbs.
“What’s usually a 15-minute drive can take you up to 40 minutes in public transit,” Bajaña said. “If you put a price tag on your time, how much are you really saving?”
Does the United Conservative Party government get the connection?
As the price of daily needs continues to soar and wages dawdle, Smith has acknowledged the squeeze.
“Affordability is a top concern for Albertans and our government must proactively do all it can do to stabilize and lower the costs of utilities, housing, food, insurance and other needed services so they can save more of their hard-earned money to spend on their families and other priorities,” Smith wrote in the mandate letter directed to the minister of affordability and utilities in the summer of 2023.
But her government’s halt to the Green Line undercut such words.
Light rail and the family budget
Calgary Transit may leave a lot to be desired, but last year saw record ridership and its LRT system helps tens of thousands of Calgarians save on transportation costs and realize the benefits of having additional cash to spare.
Ensuring access to frequent, reliable transit was the reason Sarah Rowe and her husband moved to Willow Park, an older suburb in southeast Calgary, nearly three years ago.
“When we were looking to buy a house we had a specific requirement that it be within the train line, not just bus,” she said, pointing at some of the shortcomings of Calgary Transit’s bus system. “I have found that buses are far less reliable than trains because they have to deal with road traffic.”
Currently, Rowe and her husband live within a 15-minute walk from an LRT station built in the ’80s, part of the city’s first LRT line. While Rowe continues to drive to work, remaining a one-car household allows the young couple to maintain their monthly housing and transportation costs combined within a third of their income.
For Rowe, having less money tied up in transportation costs translates into peace of mind.
“We are able to save,” she said. “I’m able to help my friends — we have a pal who is down on their luck staying with us for no rent, for example. There is still stress, but it’s one less thing to worry about.”
Meanwhile, Calgarians in the city’s southeast continue to bear the cost of a substandard transit system — and dream of an LRT line that might never reach them.
Although Ryan Tse commutes to work only a few times per week, he hopes the Green Line LRT eventually makes it to Douglas Glen, so he can drive even less.
“I really dislike driving,” he told The Tyee. “I find other drivers are kind of crazy, especially during the morning commute.”
However, taking transit to his office in Calgary’s northeast would take Tse up to 90 minutes, or twice as long as it takes him to drive there.
“I would definitely like if the Green Line came down here,” he said, adding that as his two children grow up, having access to the LRT would mean they can be more independent.
“When they’re old enough to go out with their friends, they can just take the train,” Tse said. “I don’t want to have to drive them everywhere.”
Sprawling expense
As Calgary continues to grow and spread, albeit more responsibly than it did in the past, the need for access to frequent, reliable public transit will only increase.
According to the Canadian Suburbs Atlas, close to nine in 10 Calgarians currently live in an auto-dependent suburb, leaving residents like Bajaña and Tse few opportunities to lower their transportation costs and improve their well-being.
“The best way to move in a large city at a low cost, with low impact on others and the environment, is public transit,” said Alaniz Uribe of the University of Calgary. “Because it’s typically built in one big chunk, public transit is cheaper for individuals and for cities to sustain in the long term.”
While the cost of building light rail and other urban infrastructure is rising faster in Canada than inflation, a new study by the University of Toronto identifies ways to combat overruns. The approach taken by the provincial government so far doesn’t seem to be employing such approaches. For example, the study found that letting external stakeholders such as community groups and businesses influence a project’s design tends to increase, rather than diminish, costs.
On Dec. 18, the province released a new alignment that the city estimates would cost $7.5 billion after accounting for sunk costs and risks, or $1 billion more than the city’s latest iteration of the project.
Whether the province’s alignment qualifies for federal funding remains unknown, so the future of Calgary’s Green Line is in limbo.
“Only governments can build this kind of infrastructure,” Alaniz Uribe said. “There’s no argument why we cannot improve our quality of life, and the quality of public transportation in Canada.”
Read more: Politics, Transportation, Alberta, Urban Planning
Tyee Commenting Guidelines
Comments that violate guidelines risk being deleted, and violations may result in a temporary or permanent user ban. Maintain the spirit of good conversation to stay in the discussion and be patient with moderators. Comments are reviewed regularly but not in real time.
Do:
Do not: