Calgary city council approve next LRT plan

Calgary city councillors approved plans on Tuesday for what will ultimately be part of the next LRT line.

The Southeast Transitway, also known as SETWAY, will start as a dedicated road exclusively for buses but eventually become a train line.

It will extend from downtown to the community of Seton, near the new Calgary's South Health Campus.

The $300 million first stage will see a bus route to the community of Quarry Park, but the city doesn't have all of that money yet.

Alderman Shane Keating wants to begin the SETWAY by looking at ways to speed up the existing bus service in the quadrant.

"A bridge over the Deerfoot so we don't have to try to get into the congestion to get over there, so that the BRT buses can actually go along the line and then all of a sudden, they take a left turn and they get over the Deerfoot and they're downtown," Keating explained.

"Those are the things that we have to do: an interchange over Glenmore.  I mean we can't get into Shepard Road and Ogden Road and try to follow those and get into with the rest of the traffic."

The city wants the first stage done by 2016.

Imperial Oil and Canadian Pacific recently announced they're moving their headquarters out of the downtown and will be located along the new transit line.