The Green Line Will Connect Us
The Green Line will connect Calgarians across all ages and demographic backgrounds. Calgary’s rapid-transit lines have been, are, and will be about being a conduit for people, ideas, and opportunity.The Red and Blue Ctrain lines have contributed to my sense of place and opportunity to become the young professional, the geographer and systems thinker that I am. My use of transit and cycling and car sharing options have facilitated my capacity to reinvest my time and energy into community building.
The Green Line will improve the City’s rapid transit network, connecting citizens and visitors to work, school, entertainment, services, and activity centres. When we travel on foot, by bike, or on train it puts us in touch with our City’s landscapes and with one another. Public transit nurtures our human curiosity of one another and allows us to share in the experience of movement despite our differences and goals.
The Green Line will connect Calgary to the World
I have ridden transit in at least 20 different cities across the world. I’ve taken the original metros and subways in London, Paris, and New York, which have lasted more than 100 years and were expanded after the Spanish Flu. I’ve also take the more modern at-grade light rail transit systems in cities like Zurich, Lisbon, and Amsterdam. The Green Line will have all the accessible features of the modern transit systems but will last 100 years like the classic metros. A city, it’s citizens, and visitors' relationship to rapid transit is an important one in the cities that you remember, and the cities you forget.
We are in a globally competitive market place. Calgary is competing with cities with stronger, continually growing, and more empathized public and active transport networks. The Green Line will ensure that Calgary is competitive at delivering reliable and rapid public transit on a massive scale.
The Green Line Will Connect Us to Opportunities
Stimulating the future growth and vitality of Green Line adjacent communities from the north to the southeast of this City is dependent on the Green Line corridor. The line and its accompanying twenty-eight stations will further connect the broader urban fabric, and our City wide CTrain network.
The social and economic investment and returns on investment of the Green Line will see growth and resiliency along the Green Line corridor. These Green Line communities, and their station hubs will become new destinations for business, and services. They will become community hubs for all of Calgary to invest and participate. They will be revitalized.
Public Transit Helps People
I have benefitted from having access to rapid transit.. I gained my independence and freedom using the expanded CTrain system from Junior High on, which allowed me to participate in extracurricular sporting, school, and social activities. All of which have had far reaching personal impacts beyond just mobility, but in my development as a person and my lived experiences.
Having access to reliable transit to get to and from university, social events, and employment opportunities has been possible and has removed the barriers and costs of having to rely on and incur the travel costs of doing so by car. Riding the train allows me to brainstorm, read, and. make connections. I can take mental moments for walking/cycling to the train and while I ride it because I get to use that time as a passenger rather than an active vehicle operator.
Transit and active travel has allowed me to better manage my transportation budget, giving me room to cover my personal expenses and invest more locally with the money saved from reducing my vehicle related costs (parking, gas, maintenance, insurance premiums, ownership).
I have been grateful for all the stories transit conduits have afforded me, and I have many vignettes I could share. But in the future I look forward to the Green Line being part of my and Calgary’s narratives, the opportunities more people and communities can enjoy with access to reliable transit.
I ask you to add your voice in support of building the Green Line.
About the author
Vanessa Urschel is a Geographer and community builder she approaches the world full of questions and curiosity. She believes the bicycle and rapid transit married together are the great enablers of a multitasker, linking of needs, independence, exercise, socializing, gear hauling, money saving, and connections to community and the environment. These are her views.
For more info on the Green Line visit the City of Calgary's Green Line engagement page>>.