CTrain - BCTrain continued Future Plans In 2011, Calgary City Council directed that a long term Calgary Transit Plan be created, taking into account the overall Calgary Transportation Plan. A steering committee and project team, comprising some Council members, City planning staff, independent business people and Calgary Transit staff, after detailed scenario planning and extensive public consultation, produced the December 2012 "RouteAhead: A Strategic Plan for Transit in Calgary". A 30-year roadmap for public transit in Calgary, Route Ahead includes a long term vision for the CTrain system. The RouteAhead plan was submitted to Council and approved in early 2013. Existing Lines
Green Line
North Leg
Southeast Leg
Green Line Legend Future Extension 16 Avenue N 9 Avenue N Bow River 2 Avenue SW 7 Avenue SW Downtown Transit Mall Centre Street S Red Line Blue Line 4 Street SE Elbow River Ramsay/Inglewood 26 Avenue SE Blackfoot Trail Highfield Deerfoot Trail Bow River Lynnwood/Millican Ogden South Hill Quarry Park Douglas Glen Shepard Future Extension Spur line to Calgary International Airport Calgary Transit's C$8 billion, 30-year RouteAhead plan, approved in 2013, includes a connection from downtown Calgary to Calgary International Airport, which may take initial form as a Route 202 spur line. The Airport Trail road tunnel, which opened on May 25, 2014, was built with room to accommodate a future two-track CTrain right-of-way. Other Future Improvements In late 2015, Calgary Transit completed upgrading its entire system to operate four-car trains instead of the original three-car trains. When enough new LRVs are delivered to lengthen all trains to four cars, this will increase the rush-hour capacity of the system by 33%. By 2023, Calgary Transit also plans to begin decommissioning some of the original Siemens-Duewag U2s (as of 2010 80 of the original 83 were in use, and nearing 29 years of service, by 2023 they will be 42 years old). Calgary Transit has ordered some 60 new Siemens S200 LRV cars to replace 28 of the existing U2s in addition to lengthening many of the trains to four cars. Calgary transit has also integrated a new mobile ticketing system which allows riders to buy CTrain and other Calgary Transit tickets and passes anytime from anywhere with the use of a smartphone. This system, dubbed "My Fare" was rolled out at the end of July 2020, but faced issues at launch such as the incompatibility with Apple's iOS devices. Further Underground Infrastructure In addition to numerous tunnels to allow trains to pass under roadways, geographic features, and mainline railways, there are other notable underground portions of Calgary's CTrain system. Part of the system through downtown is planned to be transferred underground when needed to maintain reliable service. Given this, portions of the needed infrastructure have been built as adjacent and associated land was developed. As a result of this original plan, when the City of Calgary built a new Municipal Building, it built a short section of tunnel to connect the existing CPR tunnel to the future tunnel under 8th Avenue S. The turnoff to this station is visible in the tunnel on the Red Line entering downtown from the south, shortly before City Hall. However, after urban explorers discovered the tunnel and visited it during a transit strike, the city walled off the spur tunnel with concrete blocks. As the population of metropolitan Calgary increases and growing suburbs require new lines and extensions, the higher train volumes will exceed the ability of the downtown section along 7th Avenue S to accommodate them. To provide for long-term expansion, the city is reviewing its plans to put parts of the downtown section underground. The current plans allow the expanded Blue Line (Northeast/West) to use the existing 7th Avenue S surface infrastructure. The expanded Red Line (Northwest/South), now sharing 7th Avenue S with the Blue Line, will be relocated to a new tunnel dug beneath 8th Avenue S. The future Southeast/Downtown route will probably enter downtown through a shorter tunnel under one or more streets (candidates include 2nd Street W, 5th Street W, 6th Street W, 8th Avenue S, 10th Avenue S, 11th Avenue S, and 12th Avenue S). Although Calgary City Council commissioned a functional study for the downtown metro component of the CTrain system in November 2007, the city is unlikely to complete this expansion before 2017 unless additional funding is received from provincial or federal governments. The cost of bringing the potential underground leg under 8 Avenue South could be at least C$800 million, according to Calgary Transit's 30-year RouteAhead plan. CTrain Stations There are 45 stations in the CTrain system on 2 distinct lines. The typical station outside the downtown core allows for several methods of passenger arrival and departure. Many CTrain passengers travel to and from suburban stations on feeder bus routes that wind their way through surrounding neighbourhoods. Another popular option is a Park and Ride lot, in which commuters drive to a station by car and then transfer to a CTrain to complete their journey. Alternatively, some CTrain passengers disembark at drop-off zones from vehicles travelling elsewhere; because many of these commuters are conveyed by their spouses, these zones are branded as Kiss and Ride areas. Ridership The CTrain's high ridership rate and cost effectiveness can be attributed to a number of factors. The nature of Calgary itself has encouraged CTrain use. Calgary has grown into the second largest head office city in Canada, with a very dense downtown business district. Most of the head offices are crowded into about 1 square kilometre (250 acres) of land in the downtown core. In the last half century the population of Calgary has grown dramatically, outpacing the ability of roads to transport people into the city centre, while the central business district has grown up vertically rather than spread out into the suburbs. Historically, Calgary residents, particularly its influential inner city community associations, voted against proposals to build major freeways into its city centre, forcing new commuters to use transit as their numbers increased while downtown street and freeway capacity remained the same. City planners limited the number of parking spaces in the downtown core since the narrow downtown streets could not allow more traffic to park. At the same time, Calgary's maturation as a globally influential head office city caused many surface parking lots to be replaced by new skyscrapers, which increased office workers while reducing parking spaces. This eventually made it prohibitively expensive for most people to park downtown. The shortage of downtown parking caused fees to become among the most expensive in North America. As a result, in 2012 50% of Calgary's 120,000 downtown workers used Calgary Transit to get to work, with a long-term goal of growing that proportion to 60% of downtown workers. Forward planning for the CTrain played an important role. Although the light rail system was not chosen until 1976, the city planners had proactively reserved transit corridors for some form of high capacity transport during the 1960s, and the right-of-ways for the system were reserved when Calgary's population was less than 500,000, whereas today it is well over twice that number. Bus rapid transit lines were put in place along future routes to increase commuter numbers prior to constructing proposed future LRT lines. Rather than demolishing buildings, the city reached an agreement with CP Rail to build most of the south line in available space inside an existing CPR right-of-way. Large parts of the other lines were built in the medians and along the edges of freeways and other major roads. Automobile driver objections were muted by adding extra lanes to roads for cars at the same time as putting in the LRT tracks, which reduced costs for both, and by adding grade-separating intersections which reduced both driver and train delays. The lines and stations were placed to serve large outlying suburbs and the central and other business districts, and to serve existing and predicted travel patterns. Costs were controlled during construction and operation of the system by going with the lowest bidder and using relatively cheap, commercially available technology without regard for "buy Canadian" policies. This has worked out well for a pioneer system because the German technology chosen has since become a more or less standard design for most North American LRT systems, and compatible new-generation equipment with new features is available off-the-shelf. A grade-separated system was passed over in preference for a system with few elevated or buried segments, and the trains and stations selected were of the tried and tested, utilitarian variety (for example, vehicles were not air conditioned, storage yards were not automated, and stations were usually modest concrete platforms with a shelter overhead). This allowed greater amounts of track to be laid within available budgets. The CTrain reduced fare collection costs by using an honour system of payment. Transit police check passenger tickets at random, and fines are set at a level high enough that those who are caught pay the costs for those who evade detection. Staffing costs were kept low by employing a minimum number of workers, and because the system is all-electric (wind powered) it can run all night with only 1 driver per train and 2 people in the control room. It now runs 22 hours per day without significantly increased overhead. (The other 2 hours are reserved for track maintenance). Although not universally grade separated, the CTrain is able to operate at high speeds on much of its track because it is separated from traffic and pedestrians by fences and concrete bollards. The downtown 7th Avenue transit way is limited to trains, buses, and emergency vehicles, with private cars prohibited. Trains are given priority right of way at most road crossings outside of downtown. As a result, trains are able to operate at 80 km/h (50 mph) outside of downtown, and 40 km/h (25 mph) along the 7th Avenue corridor. 7th Avenue is a free fare zone, intended as a downtown people-mover to encourage use for short hops through the downtown core. The city manages to achieve very high transit capacity on the 7th Avenue transit corridor by staging the traffic lights, so that all the trains move forward in unison to the next station on the synchronized green lights, and load and unload passengers on the intervening red lights. The trains are now 1 block long, but buses occupy the empty gaps every second block between trains and the buses unload and load passengers while the trains pass them. In 2001, the U.S. General Accounting Office released a study of the cost-effectiveness of American light rail systems. Although not included in the report, Calgary had a capital cost of US$24.5 million per mile (year 2000 dollars), which would be the sixth lowest (Edmonton was given as US$41.7 million per mile). Because of its high ridership (then 188,000 boardings per weekday, now over 300,000) the capital cost per passenger was $2,400 per daily passenger, by far the lowest of the 14 systems compared, while the closest American system was Sacramento at $9,100 per weekday passenger). Operating costs are also low, in 2005, the CTrain cost CDN$163 per operating hour to operate. With an average of 600 boardings per hour, in 2001 cost per LRT passenger was CDN$0.27, compared to $1.50 for bus passengers in Calgary. Facilities
CTrain Overview Transit type: Light rail (details) Number of lines: 2 Number of stations: 45 Daily ridership: 313,800 (Q4 2019) Annual ridership: 61,604,600 (2019) Began operation: May 25, 1981 Operator(s): Calgary Transit Train length: 3 or 4 cars Technical System length: 59.9 km (37.2 mi) Track gauge: 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge Electrification: Overhead lines, 600 V DC CTrain System Map Legend Tuscany 69 Street Crowfoot Sirocco Dalhousie 45 Street Brentwood Westbrook University Shaganappi Point Sunalta Lions Park Blue Line 202 Jubilee Downtown West–Kerby Sunnyside Red Line 201 8 Street SW 7 Street SW 6 Street SW 4 Street SW 3 Street SW 1 Street SW Centre Street City Hall Red Line 201 Blue Line 202 Victoria Park/Stampede Bridgeland/Memorial Erlton/Stampede Calgary Zoo 39 Avenue Barlow/Max Bell Chinook Franklin Heritage Marlborough Haysboro Storage Yards Rundle Southland Whitehorn Anderson Oliver Bowen Yards Anderson LRT Yards McKnight–Westwinds Canyon Meadows Martindale Fish Creek–Lacombe Saddletowne Shawnessy Somerset–Bridlewood Station 7th Avenue Free Fare Zone Line 200 westbound only stop tunnel eastbound only stop | |||||
| |||||
