Why do we want an LRT connection to the airport? because it's a great idea and will provide easier access to the city for people arriving at YYC. I took the skytrain downtown from YVR and it was fantastic! much cheaper and faster than a taxi or Uber.
I don't see how this line will impact the Airport connection, this stays on the wrong side of Deerfoot. The Airport connection should have been done on the Blue Line.
I think an airport connection is a nice-to-have, but should it be prioritized over extensions/connections that may serve more Calgarians who ultimately pay for the infrastructure?
Yeah, I have contradictory thoughts on this one. 1, airports are not great as trip generators.
This is for passengers, and is old,
from 2008:
And for Canada, from the open house boards:
Vancouver at 16%. Toronto, generously at 8%. Vancouver that number also includes staff remote parking, general staff and access to a mall, so the number would be lower. Toronto it includes staff, and in Toronto trips, so the number would be lower than its approximately 8%.
For travellers, a big portion for non regular travellers arrive and depart via friends and family drop off. Business travel, except for rush hour service from downtown or companies refusing to reimburse parking or cabs, I bet you capture a small number. Maybe 10 per cent of those. For those airport jobs of 46,000, how many are at the terminal that don't need to go somewhere else first, or don't have free or cheap parking, and never have to get to the airport outside of even extended transit hours? Not nearly as many.
I bet Calgary with a Blue Line only connection could capture around 6%. With Blue and Green, maybe you push 10% under current conditions.
2, the plan they have worked up so far is quite good. Short trains, frequent service is the way to go for airports. Not being a spur means it won't make the Green and Blue lines worse. Since spurs necessitate lower frequency, the forced transfer could even be said to have a negative time value, as the transfer time would be less than the average wait time for a spur train. The total travel time from downtown, without a initial waiting time via the blue line would be around 40 minutes, not bad, but slower than a cab. Where they propose stops could lead to significant other trip generation for things like offsite parking, offsite rental car, commercial and industrial, and network connectivity.
3, Don't get me wrong, I think it could be very advantageous: building this in addition to the planned northern greenline would be great, and with a train for Banff, would really help sell Calgary as a large convention destination and as an easy place to visit without a car. Now, is it worth $1 billion bucks? I'd have to see a very advantageous grant stack for that to happen.
A off the top of my head proposal, with rough math using a toy cash generated calculator:
- A Calgary area hotel tax of $2 a night would generate about $155 million (how much we could borrow today, based on the revenue) over 30 years (growth 2%, cost of capital 5%),
- An add fare of $5 for arriving or leaving the terminal maybe (starting at 6,000 pax a day, growth 5%, cost of capital 5%) another $330 million,
- $1 on the airport improvement fee, starting at 20 million a year, growing by 5%, cost of capital 5%, another $600 million.
All of a sudden that $1 billion looks like a small number to invest in this project! With buy in from the tourism sector and the airport, the project looks much more viable, even at lets say $1.5 billion, when in effect users/potential users are paying more than 50%. Of course, this isn't taking into account operating and maintenance costs.
