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And while city councillors representing the core and suburban areas blamed the economic downturn for low transit use into the core, they did admit that the city’s overall transit experience could use some improvements.

“We’ve lost a lot of jobs in the core, tens of thousands of jobs,” said Coun. Evan Woolley, whose ward represents the west end of downtown and inner-city communities such as Sunalta, Bankview and Killarney.

“But Calgarians are good at making decisions around time-efficiency, and they’re going to go into downtown in the fastest way possible. Because there is such little congestion, they are choosing to drive right now.”

At the same time, Woolley added, the LRT would be much more attractive if the downtown portion along 7th Avenue S.W. was underground, admitting that commuters coming from the west edge of the city who work on the east side of downtown sometimes suffer a slow go.

As the LRT travels along 7th Avenue, it goes through eight different intersections and up to six different stations, depending on its final destination. For many riders, that can be the longest part of their commute.

“There was definitely a lack of foresight when we initially did not put the LRT underground downtown,” Woolley said.

“But we’re trying to make up for it with other investments,” he added, explaining that BRT (bus-rapid-transit) routes, such as the one being built along 14th Street S.W. scheduled to be ready in 2018, will increase transit use.