Well Calgary’s plan honestly turned into a joke. I’m entirely unsurprised that the province pulled funding.
It truly was the definition of a train to nowhere. It serviced nobody, and I doubt it would get anywhere near the 30k ridership that the city was projecting.
It makes more sense from a financial and service stand point, to extend the Red Line to 210 Ave and the Blue Line further North. Both extensions would get better ridership than those joke of a Green Line the city decided to go with.
Maybe this is not the right kind of thinking but I thought about this like the beginning of Stoney Trail on the east side of the city. Sure it was a freeway to nowhere when the first section was done but as the different sections were built out it made sense. This was horribly sold to other orders of government and to the people of Calgary.
In the end the boring is too much. Too much risk of unknowns, and just too much money because of that risk. Lemon has some interesting ideas but the conflict with the 8th Ave subway cannot be brushed off.
Surface in the Beltline is the way to go, I agree that 1st Street SW should be how you get into downtown but do you go under the tracks via a redone underpass or over the tracks?
Caveat's are:
You need to be at surface or above 9th Ave and at surface or above 8th/Stephen Ave and since you can't go below, you definitely need to be above 7th Ave and the other C-Trains.
I don't see how it is possible to climb quick enough out of an underpass and over 8th Ave let alone 9th Ave.
Keep in mind the car traffic that would be delayed by a surface crossing of 9th Ave is likely a non-starter.
In conclusion, you have to elevate the line over the tracks and keep it elevated through the downtown to 3rd Ave There you can either keep it elevated and go up 1st Street and cross the bow on your own bridge or cut across the surface parking lots at 3rd Ave, bring the line back to the surface and cross the bow river on Centre Street Bridge.
I don't really see another good option unless the 8th Ave subway is abandoned or their willing to go deeper on the 8th Ave subway at 1st Street. The city (I mean, Province) needs to decide how important the 8th Ave subway is to them. If it is, I think if you do lemon's idea of a subway out of the 1st Street underpass and future proof the 1st Street and 8th Ave connection by digging what would be required for 8th Ave subway to go under the train going up 1st Street. Hell, you're about to redo Stephen Ave, maybe pause that and couple it with this. Now might be the time to do the 8th Ave and 1st Street subway.