[Waterlooer]

Hello! Kitchener/Waterloo (in Ontario) is going to get LRT by 2014. I was wondering if LRT in Calgary is successful and your thoughts on it... thanks!

[Wooster]

Calgary proves that LRT can be extremely successful in a relatively small, post war city. It first implemented it at a time when the city wasn't much bigger than the Kitchener-Waterloo area is now.

However, there were a few really substantional factors in this success (~270,000 trips each weekday) that are sometimes overlooked by outsiders. Calgary has a highly centralized white-collar workforce in the downtown. This makes planning for transit infrastructure relatively easy compared to more poly-centric regions like K-W. Second, dating back to the mid 1960s, the City of Calgary has severely restricted parking supply, which has made parking in downtown Calgary the most expensive in Canada and some of the most expensive day-time parking in North America. This alone has made LRT viable and competitive in a city like this.

I don't know much about the K-W region aside from a couple of brief visits, but it seems to have a very different regional structure, employment patterns (including the availability and abundance of free and cheap parking) and so forth, which may present some obstacles to its success.

[frinkprof]

Hello Waterlooer.

I had heard that Kitchener/Waterloo is getting LRT, so congratulations to you guys.

You may want to check out the discussion and information in the following threads:

Calgary Public Transit (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?p=4791161) (General transit thread)

West LRT Thread (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=168428) (Specific thread about the West LRT project, Calgary's 4th LRT line that is currently under construction)

To answer your question, LRT is hugely successful in Calgary. It consistently has among the highest riderships of all LRT systems in North America. It is also one of the first modern LRT systems to be built in North America. In the last decade, it has seen modest expansion that has ramped up a bit with the construction of the all-new West LRT line.

If you have any specific questions, there's a good chance that some of the forumers here can give you an answer or at least point you in the right direction.

[lubicon]

No question LRT has been very successful in Calgary. However Wooster has made some very good points as to why. You may want to wander over to the Edmonton forum and ask your questions there too. Similar sized city with LRT initiated at roughly the same time as Calgary's (actually a little earlier) but a city with a vastly different employment distribution pattern than Calgary.

[SFUVancouver]

Another important factor in the success of LRT in Calgary was the City's forethought to reserve rights of way for the LRT that radiate out of the CBD. These reserved rights of way dramatically improve the economics of each wave of expansion.

[freeweed]

Calgary also actually built out the LRT, instead of spending the farm on burying a kilometer of it.

[frinkprof]

Calgary also actually built out the LRT, instead of spending the farm on burying a kilometer of it.To date that is. The big expenditure to bury is inevitible though.

[Waterlooer]

Thanks everyone!

[xAnderblaze]

Another important factor in the success of LRT in Calgary was the City's forethought to reserve rights of way for the LRT that radiate out of the CBD. These reserved rights of way dramatically improve the economics of each wave of expansion.

What is the minimum width that the CTrain RoW can be?

[frinkprof]

What is the minimum width that the CTrain RoW can be?12 meters. 20 meters needed for a station.

http://www.calgarytransit.com/html/technical_information.html

I think they usually reserve a little more than that though.

[mersar]

12 meters. 20 meters needed for a station.

http://www.calgarytransit.com/html/technical_information.html

I think they usually reserve a little more than that though.

Yep. A quick google earth measure of the NE right of way through Saddleridge looks to be about 18m (though I may have randomly measured where the station is going)