A senior who was trying to get home from Stampede Park one night this week says she was hurt when crowds adopted “a mob mentality” trying to get a spot on the crowded CTrain.
Cheryl Prince tells CityNews she got caught in the middle of the chaos when the 65-year-old and her adult grandson were trying to catch a southbound train at Victoria Park station following the fireworks Thursday night.
She says around a dozen people forced their way through the packed platform when the train arrived, pushing her and leaving her face bruised.
“They just jammed through, and they hit me in the back and hit me in the shoulder, and in the knee” she says. “It’s not that they were intending to hit me, but they weren’t recognizing the impact of what they were doing.”
Prince says two police officers on the platform were unable to control the crowds and at one point had to physically hold people back. Amid the madness, she says she lost contact with her grandson and was left alone.
An officer told her the best course of action would be to walk north to City Hall station to get a spot on the train.
Prince says she ended up walking alone for 40 minutes and arrived at the station at 1 a.m. She says she feels her experience could have ended up a lot worse and thinks something needs to change.
“It was very upsetting the way that it was managed,” she says. “They could have had a queue where you had to get in line, and then it’s first come first serve.”
In a statement to CityNews, Calgary Transit says Stampede is their busiest time of year, which means customers may be required to wait longer than usual.
“Calgary Transit has increased their service levels and frequency to help with capacity during the 10 days,” reads the statement.
Some have questioned why transit isn’t running four-car CTrains during Stampede. Calgary Transit says they were unable to run the longer trains this year due to construction at a storage facility.
Expansion to the facility in the city’s southwest began in January and will be finished in the fall of 2025. Four-car trains will run once again in the future when there is capacity for it.
CityNews has reached out to the Calgary Stampede and Calgary police for comment on the crowds.