Article content continued

The Centre Street area’s “bus rapid transit,” local and express routes handle 35,000 passengers daily, while the southeast routes take 7,600.

“We would want to put in the technology that’s appropriate for the time and the use, and my worry is that we would leap to LRT before we have the density and before we can make it pay,” said Coun. Druh Farrell, who represents part of the north-central leg of the future route.

Along with the study, due in December, council tacked on a cost-benefit analysis to see if such a massive investment actually makes sense above all other priorities.

Keating said he believes the project has been studied to death and the need in his quadrant and the Centre corridor is well-proven. If other levels of governments come through with grants that can fast-track Calgary to LRT, Calgary should have the plan “shovel ready,” he said.

Photo by Colleen De Neve / Calgary Herald

The busway has already been funded through property taxes, at a fraction the cost of LRT. The current transit long-range plan has work starting in 2017 on the busway to Douglas Glen in the southeast and 78th Avenue in the north. It would be complete by 2021.

The LRT would begin work in 2029, if the population was there, transit director Doug Morgan said. But that schedule was based on population projections that are several years old, and are worth renewing.

“It’s still a ways off, but want we want to do is just understand what the business case is and be ready should funding be announced,” Morgan said.