Calgary Coun. Diane Colley-Urquhart says southwest BRT should be 'put on ice'

Coun. Diane Colley-Urquhart has withdrawn her support for Calgary's controversial southwest rapid transit route project, saying it should be "put on ice."

About 200 people turned out for an information session about the ​Southwest bus rapid transit (BRT) proposal called by the Ward 13 councillor at at Woodcreek Community Centre on Wednesday night.

"We want this project put on ice until we get some common sense put back into it and citizens are engaged in a meaningful way," she told the gathering. 

The southwest BRT is a 22-kilometre bus route proposed from Woodbine in the city's south to the downtown core. It's designed to take some pressure off of the south leg of the LRT by increasing bus usage. Some of the plan includes dedicated bus lanes to reduce traffic congestion in peak times.

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The original rough cost estimate of $40 million has grown to a more detailed estimate ranging from $57 million to a whopping $65.6 million.

"It's not just one thing why I'm not supporting this project anymore. It's not just the budget, it's not just conversion of ATCO high pressure to low pressure gas lines. It's not just the massive development that's going to take place at Glenmore Landing, or the Jewish Centre, or the interchange that's going under 90th ... it's all of those things that we didn't know five years ago when this was approved," Colley-Urquhart said.

"We need to stop, we need to take a deep breath."

City says they weren't notified or invited to meeting

It has spurred heated opposition  — so heated that Mayor Naheed Nenshi cancelled public engagement sessions earlier in the year, saying opponents of the plan were physically and verbally threatening city staff.

Nenshi attributed the actions to people belonging to Ready to Engage, a group of Calgarians speaking out against the plan.

Ready to Engage in turn criticized Nenshi and his administration, saying they were using poor citizen behaviour as a "smokescreen" for not addressing the weaknesses in the proposal.

City transportation spokesman Sean Somers said Thursday that city staff were neither invited nor welcomed to attend the meeting called by Colley-Urquhart.

Community concerns

Geoff Horne, a member of Ready to Engage group, says he wants Colley-Urquhart to commit to delay the project until there's a better rationale for it.

"How are they going to get to this bus? If they are shuttling them in from south of Fish Creek park, why don't they just shuttle them to BRT stations?"

Horne says he's worried about the influx of people and lack of parking space.

Although many people at the meeting said they support transit as a concept, they believe ridership is currently too low to justify the cost of the BRT.

That concerns Jaclyn Mersereau, who lives in Woodlands, and takes transit daily. She says commuters' voices aren't being heard.

"To blanket everyone as wanting a certain way of transportation and of living is not appropriate."

Mersereau says the community is changing, and hopes the city will add services to reflect that.

"Although there aren't current ridership studies, over the next 10 years we will see that demand come into this community and I would like to see the planning done ahead of that so that we are prepared for that and those services are in place."​

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