Calgary mulls downtown Green Line LRT route options

They know the Green Line will travelthrough downtown on Second St. S.W. but Calgary city council just doesn't know yet whether the C-Train will be elevated, in a tunnel or with sections on the road.

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Five options for the downtown portion of the $5 billion Green Linewere presented to council's transportation and transit committeeFriday.

Committee chairman Councillor Shane Keating says Calgarians will be consulted in 2016 about the various options.

He personally hasn't been impressed by the look or conceptof an elevated train line through the heart of the city.

Keating thought it might wreck the streetscape but after visiting cities like Vancouver, Seattle and Portland to look at their transit lines,he's askingCalgarians to keep an open mind.

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"We did see some fairly nice and attractive elevated runways, kind of the Peace Bridge look and those sorts of things," Keatingsaid.

"I think we have to assess what's out there, what can be done, what the cost is ... and that's the big thing right now."

The federal government has committed $1.5 billion and city council has approved $520 million so far but it will discuss a long-term proposal to put another billion dollars toward the project on Monday.

The provincial governmenthasn't committed funds yet.

Council has directed Mayor Naheed Nenshito send a formal request to the Notley government.

The alignment for the southeastleg was given the thumbs up by council in November.

Themega-project will see a newC-Train line stretch 40 kilometres across the city, from North Pointe to the southeast community of Seton.

The northern part of the line will run on Centre Street but the downtown link to connect the north end and the southeast portion has yet to be settled.

It's a complicated piece of geography.

The options include using the century-old Centre Street Bridge orbuilding a new span over the Bow to the west of it.

Also to be determined, whether it should bean elevated line through downtown or in a tunnel which couldinclude an underground station or two before reaching 10th Ave.and heading east towards Inglewood.