I feel we're overthinking if we're trying to figure out how to integrate or reimagine 7 Ave Transit Mall with SE LRT; whereas a cost effective simple solution may simply be just going with the elevated option through the Beltline and downtown. The transit mall is already at capacity as it is, and has a major drawback of vehicle/pedestrian collisions causing disruptions to service. It's also common for trains to break down on the transit mall, which also causes delays to both lines. So adding a third line to the mix that not only reduces service for the other two lines, but now incidents that occur will effect three lines with lower frequency caps doesn't improve transit for Calgarians overall. Mulit-line service on 7 Ave needs to be subtracted, not added.
Sure, the idea to accelerate the 8 Ave Subway to reallocate the Red Line onto that, and either have the SE LRT us that as well, or replace the Red Line on 7 Ave so there's now two lines for the West LRT into downtown is an alternative. But you still have the drawbacks of multiple lines on the Transit Mall, and the big issue here is the costs of going underground. By my estimation, the July 2024 city proposed Green Line was going to be underground for roughly 2km. The 8 Ave Subway would be 2.5km. The Green Line would've had to be deeper at some point, but will 8 Ave really be that much cheaper, if at all? And even if this concept was to be done, you will have to figure out how the NC LRT gets integrated into all this, which honestly should've had the LRT yesterday.
There's a reason why after two decades of studying this, the preferred option was to have the Green Line function to serve both the NC and SE, and not share tracks with 7 Ave. Do the best option for the long term today. The problem that I will largely place blame on the city councils over the past terms was having tunnel vision for the subway option when the costs for that exploded. It may have made sense back in 2015, 2017, and even 2021. But if the same result, but elevated can allow with the current allocated money to have the LRT actually reach areas where people in the SE live (and shit, maybe even get across the Bow River for the first phase), then it seems like a no brainer to go with elevated. 2 ST SW corridor really won't have much of a detrimental effect from it. In fact, if designed right, it may help improve it, lol.