[MichaelS]

Calgary unveils Radio Park with sports demos, mascots and food trucks

Mayor Jyoti Gondek cut the ribbon Saturday to open Radio Park in West District, features mist plaza, dog park, city's tallest slide

calgaryherald.com

 

[pdubs015]

The scale of development in both West Springs and Springbank Hill makes me wonder if a West LRT extension is possible. With one station at 17 Ave/ 85 St, then one in the West Springs Area, say 8 Ave and 85 St.

I saw in the Calgary Transit Route Ahead plan, this extension was listed as a potential project, but with a low likelihood of execution. Their incremental ridership estimate was 1500. I see estimate to be far too low, as this condo development has been incredible in these neighbourhoods.

That being said, there is a long list of realistic transit projects on the horizon, so this west extension wouldn’t be in the next 15-20 years. A full buildout of the green line, and then a NE blue line extension to the airport or Stonegate seems like a higher priority when I think about it.

 

[Surrealplaces]

The scale of development in both West Springs and Springbank Hill makes me wonder if a West LRT extension is possible. With one station at 17 Ave/ 85 St, then one in the West Springs Area, say 8 Ave and 85 St.

I saw in the Calgary Transit Route Ahead plan, this extension was listed as a potential project, but with a low likelihood of execution. Their incremental ridership estimate was 1500. I see estimate to be far too low, as this condo development has been incredible in these neighbourhoods.

It's probably at or near the bottom of priorities, but with the rapid growth of the area, a spur could become a possibility. Lots of cities do spurs.

 

[Golfing guy]

It's probably at or near the bottom of priorities, but with the rapid growth of the area, a spur could become a possibility. Lots of cities do spurs.

I doubt that they’d put a spur up there. First reason they probably don’t have a right way at aside for it. Second straight up cost. Being that it’s probably 3 km’s from 17ave to West district the cost would be close to a billion dollars. 3rd reason is let’s face it. The people who live in that area aren’t exactly transit type folks. The money would be spent more efficiently on green line extension.

 

[DougB]

Blue Line could be elevated through the strip malls on the east side of 85th to West District so as to avoid NIMBYs. The parcel across from West District with the radio transmitters could be planned ar even higher density built around the Blue Line. It could then cross Stoney to another TOD on the aggregate borrow site west of Stoney with a large park and ride in the TUC right of way.

 

[pdubs015]

I feel like it’s a much easier sell to the public to extend a currently operating line that is successful, rather than building a completely new line. This would be a natural project to consider after the green line is all done

 

[Surrealplaces]

I doubt that they’d put a spur up there. First reason they probably don’t have a right way at aside for it. Second straight up cost. Being that it’s probably 3 km’s from 17ave to West district the cost would be close to a billion dollars. 3rd reason is let’s face it. The people who live in that area aren’t exactly transit type folks. The money would be spent more efficiently on green line extension.

Agreed, right now it's not a priority, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities in the future. If they are ever going to expand the west part of Blue line past 85th going north into West springs area nets a lot of users, likely more than we'll likely see west of 85th. Of course that could change once we see what development looks like west of the ring road, but currently it's a cemetery and acreages.

I don't know about right of way, but I imagine they should already have right of way down 85th no?

 

[MichaelS]

There is no surplus ROW on 85th. There would need to be a reduction in traffic lanes to accommodate an expansion of the C-Train up there. The clear and obvious solution is to just fund the route 98 to run at a 5 minute frequency. It would cost a fraction of what extending the C-train up here would cost, and be just as effective.

 

[pdubs015]

The Route Ahead Report on page 122 shows right of way for the extension to 85 St station at the intersection of Aspen Hills Dr and Aspen Stone Blvd. This doesn’t open the door for an additional station to the north in the community of West Springs. Perhaps the only alternative is to head west from here, and that would put it west of Stoney: highly unlikely, at any time in the next few decades.

 

[Surrealplaces]

There is no surplus ROW on 85th. There would need to be a reduction in traffic lanes to accommodate an expansion of the C-Train up there. The clear and obvious solution is to just fund the route 98 to run at a 5 minute frequency. It would cost a fraction of what extending the C-train up here would cost, and be just as effective.

Doing a good bus feeder would work well.

 

[Red Star]

There is no surplus ROW on 85th. There would need to be a reduction in traffic lanes to accommodate an expansion of the C-Train up there. The clear and obvious solution is to just fund the route 98 to run at a 5 minute frequency. It would cost a fraction of what extending the C-train up here would cost, and be just as effective.

I think the city should start planning for a blue line extension to West District. Slowly do land acquisition and utility relocation. Eventually LRT to West District will be required.

In the short term(5-10years) I think a 1km extension of the blue line to Aspen Village would greatly increase the ridership of the West LRT. That area is going to have a very high population density.

Black circle would be the future station:

 

[CBBarnett]

The Route Ahead Report on page 122 shows right of way for the extension to 85 St station at the intersection of Aspen Hills Dr and Aspen Stone Blvd. This doesn’t open the door for an additional station to the north in the community of West Springs. Perhaps the only alternative is to head west from here, and that would put it west of Stoney: highly unlikely, at any time in the next few decades.

View attachment 682975

Feeder busses would work fine and it's a short enough distance to be reasonably cheap to provide good frequencies without many buses.

I've always been bugged by this alignment though - our system of suburban growth being first and foremost a stormwater and arterial road planning exercise is on clear display here. The final stop should not be tucked off into community, it should just be at the 85th Street and 17th Ave intersection. Save a hundred million for the additional track and actually put the station where there's a larger node of population and activity. Despite much of the catchment being wasted on stormponds due to poor planning decisions 25 years ago, the intersection is still a better location.

 

[lemongrab]

I'd say move it slightly to the east, starting the platform near 81 St. But of course you keep the platform level, which would set the west end up perfectly for a ped overpass over 17th that would have negligible grade, including the ramp on the north side. Platform would end around the second lightpole you can faintly see here:

Then the tracks would be set to fly over 17th and run up 85th St (some day, having mitigated the lowest elevation on the route.

 

[lemongrab]

There is no surplus ROW on 85th. There would need to be a reduction in traffic lanes to accommodate an expansion of the C-Train up there. The clear and obvious solution is to just fund the route 98 to run at a 5 minute frequency. It would cost a fraction of what extending the C-train up here would cost, and be just as effective.

I think I've posted this before, but it would be a perfect opportunity to do a high frequency one-way loop. Right now the 98 is a 33 minute round trip with up to 39 stops (though I'm sure it skips a lot of them).

Google maps pegs this route at about 16 minutes, so probably about 20 mins with the 10 stops:

Consolidate the 7 slow routes (including 98) that hit this area into 4 and you could do 7 min frequency all day without adding a single driver!

 

[Red Star]

Feeder busses would work fine and it's a short enough distance to be reasonably cheap to provide good frequencies without many buses.

I've always been bugged by this alignment though - our system of suburban growth being first and foremost a stormwater and arterial road planning exercise is on clear display here. The final stop should not be tucked off into community, it should just be at the 85th Street and 17th Ave intersection. Save a hundred million for the additional track and actually put the station where there's a larger node of population and activity. Despite much of the catchment being wasted on stormponds due to poor planning decisions 25 years ago, the intersection is still a better location.
View attachment 683023

I think moving the station farther east would be a better option. The future 'mean center of population' of Aspen Springs is closer to the east and a pedestrian crossing at 17th Ave would connect to the shopping area very nicely.

The city needs to start planning this station and access points ASAP. Worst case scenario is that the new multi-family developments boxes in potential pedestrian connections south of the station.