Remember Imagine Calgary? That was the multimillion-dollar 18,000-Calgarian consultation to come up with a blueprint for our future.
Its transportation strategy No. 1: “Encourage increased use of transit.”
So imagine this. When the Calgary Airport shuts down Barlow Trail for a new runway next year, there will be no southern access to the main airport terminal and no direct bus connection closest LRT: Whitehorn.
Currently, the Calgary airport is served by two transit buses—the 430 Crosstown (which serves only 44 people a day and takes one hour from Crowfoot). But most passengers take No. 57 — which connects to Whitehorn LRT (the transit route to downtown).
Who uses that bus? It’s 80 per cent airport employees, and most are from the northeast, says Calgary Transit. Some 400 people per day travel on the No. 57.
As my Mount Royal colleague Naheed Nenshi points out in more delicate terms, the northeast is about to get screwed.
But so are we all. Consider that 12 million people fly in and out of the Calgary airport each year. A lot.
Yes, I’ve taken the No. 57 bus. It was a social experiment since I befriended a blind man on a flight and was curious how he and his seeing eye dog would get to Kensington. It took an hour and a half to reach that inner city neighbourhood.
Calgary Transit says travellers aren’t interested in taking transit to the airport. It questions whether at least 25 people per hour would take the airport bus. That’s the minimum threshold.
Try us, CT, on a more direct route downtown. Maybe an LRT link. There’s no plans to put the northeast extension to the airport.
Yes, Calgary Transit is under pressure. It needs to provide service to new communities. As well, its hours of service are being cut.
For now, its best airport transit idea is to run a bus from the airport down Centre Street into downtown and back.
It’s estimated that ride would take 30 minutes.
That sounds like a good idea.
Calgary Transit needs to be supported to make airport transit as direct as possible. If we have money for all the road work that will divert traffic around the airport, we must have money for public transit.
Imagine Calgary. We’ve increased car and taxi travel, rather than reduce it.
– Janice Paskey teaches at Mount Royal University and is a volunteer with Westwood Hockey.
Correction – May 21, 2010, 3:25 p.m. MST: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated there is just one direct bus connection to the airport, the 57. In fact, there are two — the 57 and the 430 Crosstown.
