Western Standard - August 02, 2024


Calgary Green Line LRT moves ahead with $6 2 billion smaller line


Episode Stats

Length

3 minutes

Words per Minute

202.33714

Word Count

733

Sentence Count

74

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary

In this episode, I talk about the lack of progress on the Green Line in Calgary and why we need a light rail transit system in our city. I also talk about why we should be looking outside of downtown Calgary to fill the growing downtown vacancy problem.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 For people who watch Calgary News and things out here, the Green Line, I just like ranting about that one because this is a beauty.
00:00:06.360 This is an LRT, light rail transit, expansion.
00:00:10.080 They've been talking about it for like 16, 17 years in Calgary.
00:00:13.120 Now it's on and on and on.
00:00:15.220 Nothing's getting done.
00:00:16.220 They've done a bunch of ripping up stuff downtown.
00:00:18.200 They're doing some underground utility work apparently.
00:00:20.020 But what the government does, so the city of Calgary managed to get billions out of the federal government and the provincial government.
00:00:26.580 Of course, they get billions of the Calgarian taxpayers and spent a decade on this thing.
00:00:30.640 Still not an inch of track laid yet.
00:00:32.880 I believe they spent one and a half billion so far.
00:00:36.540 The other levels of government basically said, we've given you enough.
00:00:38.920 We're done.
00:00:39.900 Make do.
00:00:40.360 So what have they done?
00:00:40.940 They keep shrinking it.
00:00:42.580 It's like I said, it's like a pecker in a cold swimming pool.
00:00:45.120 This thing is shriveling up so fast.
00:00:47.100 Every time they give a new report on it, it gets shorter.
00:00:49.460 The price doesn't get any lower.
00:00:50.700 It's up to $6 billion now.
00:00:52.200 And this thing is barely going to go outside of downtown.
00:00:55.040 No private business could run that way for 16 years.
00:01:00.580 Shareholders, others would fire them.
00:01:02.840 They would pull out.
00:01:03.520 The business would go broke.
00:01:04.380 But when it's government, they could just keep going and going and going.
00:01:08.060 And you get hooped.
00:01:10.280 So what we're going to have one day is a grossly over-budget project that goes from downtown Calgary
00:01:18.360 into a part of town that doesn't have many people in it.
00:01:22.400 And who knows when it's going to get done.
00:01:25.140 We've got to start rethinking our urban design anyways.
00:01:29.320 Downtowns.
00:01:29.740 Who goes downtown anymore?
00:01:31.760 I mean, people still do, but it's not like it used to be.
00:01:34.280 Calgary has a massive downtown vacancy problem going on right now.
00:01:38.040 And most downtown urban centers do.
00:01:40.000 One of the consequences of COVID that people discovered is a lot of people discovered I
00:01:44.560 don't have to go to the office every day.
00:01:46.500 A lot of those businesses realized we don't need the staff in here every day.
00:01:50.560 A lot of them can work remotely.
00:01:52.120 And they have.
00:01:52.740 And they've stayed that way.
00:01:54.280 Now we've got the government workers who are staying that way, but they aren't actually
00:01:56.280 working.
00:01:56.720 They're just sitting around home playing Minecraft.
00:01:58.200 But that's a separate story.
00:01:59.920 All the same, we have a surplus of office space.
00:02:02.900 These aren't growing areas.
00:02:04.020 We're trying to figure out how to fill them.
00:02:05.980 Adding more train service into these centers isn't the way to go.
00:02:08.980 We should be planning our city's understanding and realizing that people don't need to come
00:02:12.840 into these dense urban cores anymore.
00:02:14.800 They can live outside.
00:02:17.180 So let's look at transit service and how we can service that rather than these giant
00:02:21.040 projects that don't work.
00:02:23.260 They don't go anywhere.
00:02:24.760 And here we are in Calgary.
00:02:26.380 We've seen the same thing in Ottawa.
00:02:27.560 Theirs is a disaster.
00:02:29.100 Edmonton's is a disaster.
00:02:30.680 And those are the other things too, though.
00:02:32.220 If you're going to do these mega projects, get the private market in on it more.
00:02:36.360 Get the government out as much as possible.
00:02:38.160 But hey, guess who's behind Calgary's?
00:02:41.300 SNC-Lavalin.
00:02:42.540 Familiar name?
00:02:43.700 Yeah.
00:02:44.420 Thought so.
00:02:45.500 Boy, these names just keep popping up with these multi-billion dollar projects where nothing
00:02:48.640 gets done except a lot of pockets get lined and a lot of pockets get emptied.
00:02:53.120 Couldn't mind.
00:02:54.040 Lone Warrior saying, still no train to the airport.
00:02:55.900 Yes.
00:02:56.140 In Calgary, if there was common sense, the north leg of one of the train lines goes right
00:03:01.640 up right across from the airport.
00:03:03.060 It's actually kind of a straight shot across flat ground.
00:03:05.000 A lot of it's undeveloped.
00:03:06.080 It's industrial, light industrial, and nothing out there from Saddletown.
00:03:10.420 They could run a train out there because most of the people who work at the airport, and
00:03:13.280 there's thousands of them, plus people who might want to use the train to get there to
00:03:16.000 fly, would use that.
00:03:18.140 There's something that would make sense that would be used.
00:03:20.960 So, of course, the city isn't doing it.
00:03:23.540 Welcome to the realities, again, of monopoly service and peckerheads in power that really
00:03:27.320 shouldn't be.
00:03:27.820 Thank you.
00:03:36.100 Thank you.