A rally is organized for outside Calgary’s city hall Monday to call on politicians to work together to save the Green Line LRT.
Organizer Calgary Alliance for the Common Good says in a post to social media the event will begin at noon.
This comes ahead of a city council meeting set for Tuesday, where council will hear advice on how to abandon the project and offload the costs and delivery onto the province.
Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors, Devin Dreeshen, announced earlier this month the province would be pulling its $1.53 billion in funding from the $6.2 billion project due to disagreements on alignment. Without the province’s support, the city said it can no longer afford the project.
In July, Calgary City Council said another $705 million was being invested in the Green Line while simultaneously cutting down the overall projected budget.
One of the changes approved by council at the time was building the core of the project from Eau Claire in downtown Calgary to Lynwood/Millican in the southeast. The line would have connected with Calgary Transit’s Red and Blue lines in downtown Calgary and included a new maintenance and storage facility at Highfield.
Previous plans had the first phase of the project going all the way south to Shepherd with five more stations in southeast.
The recommendations also included deferring building a Centre Street Station in the Beltline and moving a station at 4 Street SE to above ground.
The premier’s office later said the province would restore the money if the LRT was built above ground.
The Green Line Board is also set to meet Monday at 9 a.m.