Sandy Responds to Mayor's Old News

Mayor putting cart before horse, says Jenkins

Press release, September 21

CALGARY - Calgary mayoral candidate Sandy Jenkins says that the announcement for LRT expansion to the northwest and northeast is the right idea at the wrong time.

"I don't know how the mayor can call this news," says Sandy Jenkins, the 47-year-old geophysicist who is challenging for the mayor's office in October's municipal election. "This expansion has been on the books for months, even years, and not one candidate disagrees that it is long overdue."

"However, we are putting the cart before the horse if we go ahead with this expansion without first placing the LRT beneath 8th Avenue downtown."

Building extensions to an overloaded system is irresponsible without improving it at its heart. Calgary's LRT currently rides at capacity during peak hours, and is notably slow and dangerous while moving through the downtown core. The size of trains are limited by the size of city blocks and they can go only as fast as the traffic lights will allow.

"How can you call the C-Train 'rapid transit' when it has to wait at red lights?" asks Jenkins. "The trains are slow, commuters are often stuck waiting at platforms. Downtown, the C-Train is nothing more than a glorified street car."

The bottleneck in the downtown core can be eliminated with a subway under 8th Avenue. Some of the work has already been done; there is a station and tunnel under city hall.

The trains will be 5 cars long and will not be impeded by street lights, jay walkers, or automobiles. With longer trains and better  scheduling, the capacity and speed of the system will be significantly improved.

The City of Calgary has had a plan for an underground LRT since 1970, which would then have cost $20 million to build. Current estimates peg the construction of a new line beneath 8th Avenue at approximately $500 million.

"500 million is far less than what the mayor plans to spend on adding even more congestion to the LRT lines," says Jenkins. "If we wait another 10 years, that cost will rise above a billion dollars, and we will still be stuck with the same slow and dangerous downtown line."

Jenkins adds, "Calgarians expect their leadership to think past the next election cycle. Now is not the time to hesitate. If we plan on being a world-class city, we need to put the LRT under 8th Avenue, and we need to do it now".