CTrain (previously branded C-Train) is a light rail system in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The system is operated by Calgary Transit as part of the Calgary municipal government's transportation department, and currently consists of two lines; the Red Line and the Blue Line.
The CTrain began operation on May 25, 1981, and has expanded as the city has increased in population. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of , making it one of the busiest light rail transit systems in North America.
History The idea for rail transit in Calgary originated in a 1967 Calgary transportation study, which recommended a two-line metro system to enter service in 1978. The original plans had called for two lines: a northwest-to-south line (on a similar routing to the present-day Northwest and South lines) between the original Banff Trail station (at Crowchild Trail and Northland Drive, between the present-day Brentwood and Dalhousie stations) and Southwood station (at Southland Drive, roughly at the location of the present-day Southland station, with five stations in downtown underneath 7 Avenue; and the west line, which ran from downtown to the community of Glendale, primarily along the 26 Avenue SW corridor. A third line, a north central line running from downtown to Thorncliffe mostly along Centre Street was also envisioned but was thought to be beyond the scope of the study.
However, a building boom in the 1970s had caused the heavy rail concept to fall out of favour due to the increased costs of construction, with light rail as its replacement. Light rail rapid transit (LRRT) was chosen over dedicated busways and the expansion of the Blue Arrow bus service (a service similar to bus rapid transit today) because light rail has lower long-term operating costs and addressed traffic congestion problems. The Blue Arrow service ended in 2000.
The present-day CTrain originated in a 1975 plan, calling for the construction of a single line, from the downtown core (8 Street station) to Anderson Road (the present-day Anderson station). The plan was approved by City Council in May 1977, with the construction of what would become the C-Train's "South Line" beginning one month later. The South Line opened on May 25, 1981.History Calgary Transit Oliver Bowen, a descendant of original black settlers to Amber Valley, Alberta Obadiah Bowen and Willis Reese Bowen, was the manager of the department that designed and built the original CTrain system. In 2009, the City of Calgary named its largest maintenance facility after Bowen to honour his work. The Oliver Bowen LRT Maintenance Facility (OBMF) in northeast Calgary is a $6.5 million rail facility.
Though the South Line was planned to extend to the northwest, political pressures led to the commission of the "Northeast Line", running from Whitehorn station (at 36 Street NE and 39 Avenue NE) to the downtown core, with a new downtown terminal station for both lines at 10 Street SW, which opened on April 27, 1985.Calgary Light Rail Expansion Pacific RailNews issue 263 October 1985 page 29
The Northwest Line, the extension of the South Line to the city's northwest, was opened on September 17, 1987, in time for the 1988 Winter Olympics.Interurbans Newsletter Pacific RailNews issue 289 December 1987 page 46 This line ran from the downtown core to University station, next to the University of Calgary campus. Since then, all three lines have been extended incrementally, with most of the stations commissioned and built in the 2000s (with the exception of Brentwood which opened in 1990, three years after the original Northwest line opened).
In April 1996, Calgary Transit began piloting a commuter rail service between Anderson station and a temporary station located at 162 Avenue SW, operating a rented Siemens RegioSprinter DMU which ran on CP Rail MacLeod Subdivision tracks. This pilot was intended as a short-term solution to road congestion for the rapidly growing commuter population in South Calgary and as an experiment to test the viability of a South Red Line extension. A new temporary passenger platform was added on the CP Rail line adjacent to Anderson station. The RegioSprinter was travelled between this platform and a platform at 162 Avenue SW located just north of the present-day Somerset–Bridlewood station. This service was only in operation during peak hours and was free-of-charge. Service was discontinued after five months.
The West Line, the extension of the Northeast Line, opened for revenue service on December 10, 2012, as the first new line to open in 25 years. The line runs for 8.2 km from Downtown West–Kerby station on 7 Avenue at 11 Street SW at the west end of Downtown, westward to 69 Street station located at the intersection of 17 Avenue and 69 Street SW. + LRT extensions Date Stations Line August 31, 1990 Northwest Line October 9, 2001 South Line December 15, 2003 Northwest Line June 28, 2004 South Line December 17, 2007 Northeast Line June 15, 2009 Northwest Line August 27, 2012 Northeast Line August 25, 2014 Northwest Line
Lines The CTrain system has two routes, designated as the and the . They have a combined route length of . Much of the South leg of the system shares the right of way of the Canadian Pacific Railway and there is a connection from the light rail track to the CPR line via a track switch near Heritage station.
The longer route (Red Line; serves the southern and northwestern areas of the city. The shorter route (Blue Line; long) serves the northeastern and western sections of the city. Most track is at grade, with its own right-of-way. The downtown portion is a shared right-of-way, serving both routes along the 7th Avenue South transit mall at street level. This portion is a zero-fare zone and serves as a downtown people mover. The tracks split at the east and west ends of downtown into lines leading to the south, northeast, west and northwest residential neighbourhoods of Calgary. Six percent of the system is underground, and seven percent is elevated. Trains are powered by overhead electric wires, using pantographs to draw power.In the first quarter of 2015, the CTrain system had an average of 333,800 unlinked passenger trips per weekday, making it the busiest light rail system in North America. Ridership has declined slightly since reaching this peak, coinciding with a recession in the local economy. In 2007, 45% of the people working in downtown Calgary took transit to work; the city's objective is to increase that to 60%.
Rolling stock The system initially used Siemens-Duewag U2 DC LRVs (originally designed for German metros), and used by the Frankfurt U-Bahn. The slightly earlier Edmonton LRT, and the slightly later San Diego Trolley were built at approximately the same time and used the same commercial off-the-shelf German LRVs rather than custom-designed vehicles such as were used on the Toronto streetcar system and the Vancouver SkyTrain. U2 vehicles constituted the entire fleet in Calgary until July 2001, when the first Siemens SD-160 cars were delivered. Eighty-three U2 DCs were delivered to Calgary over three separate orders; 27 in 1981, three in 1983, and 53 in 1984 and are numbered 2001–2083. As of March 2020, 39 out of the original 83 U2 DCs remain in service, plus car 2090. The success of the first North American LRT systems inspired Siemens to build an LRV plant in Florin, California. Siemens now supplies one-third of North American LRVs and has supplied over 1000 vehicles to 17 North American systems. This will include 258 vehicles for Calgary when the current order of Siemens S200 vehicles is completed.
Fleet numbers Total Type Year OrderedYear RetiredNumber of units RetiredExteriorInterior City of manufacture Notes 2001–2083, 2090 83 Siemens–Duewag U2 1979–1985 Started 201644 Düsseldorf, Germany 1 unit formed from other units (see 2002)
Retired units are up to date as of March 24, 20202101-21022Siemens–Duewag U2 AC: uses AC traction instead of DC traction.198820161 Being former demonstration trains: only variants in the world.
Named Scout, 2101 is an asset inspection train for overhead lines and tracks. 2201–2272 72 Siemens SD-160 Series 5/6/7 2001–2006 - - Florin, California Retrofitted with air conditioning 2009–2011 in-house.
All to be refurbished by Siemens. 2301–2338 38 Siemens SD-160NG Series 8 2007 - 1 2311 retired due to an accident (see below) 2401-2469 69 Siemens S200 2013–2018 - - 2401-2463 built and delivered between 2015 and 2019; 2464–2469, 2019–2020N/A28CAF Urbos2021 - - - -N/AFirst low-floor LRVs in Calgary; planned for use on the Green Line. Option for 24 further LRVs possible.
In 1988, the Alberta Government purchased from Siemens two U2 AC units, the first of their kind in North America, for trials on both the Edmonton and Calgary LRT systems. The cars were originally numbered 3001 and 3002 and served in Edmonton from 1988 to spring 1990. These LRVs came to Calgary in the summer of 1990 and in September, Calgary Transit decided to purchase the cars from the province and then applied the CT livery to the cars (they were previously plain white in both Edmonton and Calgary). They retained their original fleet numbers of 3001 and 3002 until 1999, when CT renumbered the cars 2101 and 2102. Initially, these two cars were only run together as a two-car consist as they were incompatible with the U2 DCs. In 2003, Calgary Transit made the two U2 ACs compatible as slave cars between two SD-160s and have been running them like this ever since.
In July 2001, Calgary Transit brought the first of 15 new SD-160 LRVs into service to accommodate the South LRT Extension Phase I and increased capacity. Throughout 2003, another 17 SD-160 LRVs were introduced into the fleet to accommodate the northwest extension to Dalhousie as well as the South LRT Extension Phase II. However, demand for light rail has exploded in recent years. In the decade prior to 2006, the city's population grew by 25% to over 1 million people, while ridership on the CTrain grew at twice that rate, by 50% in only 10 years. This resulted in severe overcrowding on the trains and demands for better service. In December, 2004, city council approved an order for 33 additional SD-160 vehicles from Siemens to not only address overcrowding, but to accommodate the northeast extension to McKnight–Westwinds and the northwest extension to Crowfoot. These new SD–160s started to enter service in November, 2006. In December 2006, CT extended the order by seven cars to a total of 40 cars, which had all been delivered by the spring of 2008. This brought the total of first-generation SD–160s to 72 cars numbered 2201 – 2272. These cars were all delivered without air conditioning, and retrofitted with air conditioning between 2009 and 2011.
In November 2007 city council approved purchasing another 38 SD-160 Series 8 LRVs to be used in conjunction with the West LRT extension (2012) and further expansions to the northeast (Saddletowne 2012) and northwest legs (Tuscany 2014). These are new-generation train cars with many upgraded features over the original SD-160s including factory equipped air conditioning and various cosmetic and technical changes. These units started to enter service in December 2010 and are numbered 2301–2338. As of May 2012, all had entered revenue service.