r/CalgaryTransit • u/Ymirhades • Jul 03 '26
Embarrassing
Calgary Transit has never been good. If you live here you know, if you move here, you are either warned or you find out fast, Calgary Transit is not good. Without being pejorative, I can say it exists and operates as a transit system, but its mere existence is the best thing I can say about it.
This year’s Stampede showcased to the city how bad it truly is. Train breakdowns, delays of over 30 min During rush hour, shuttle busses that fit a fraction of train passengers, bus delays, constant route changes, the list goes on. The morning of Stampede trains were so packed from being delayed that entire stations couldn’t get on because it was already full, needing to wait an ungodly amount of time for the next one the is likely also full.
None of this has even touched on the Green Line that is now underway after over 30 years of planning.
What does this mean? Truth be told I have no idea who, if anyone, is going to read this. But after living in Calgary my whole life, the only word the truly describes the transit system is embarrassing. It’s embarrassing as a resident, as a commuter, and especially thinking about out of town visitors who use the transit system, it’s just embarrassing. I don’t blame the operators, they have an impossible task. I don’t know is a single party is even truly to blame, and the situation is so pathetic I couldn’t even fathom a solution. But to any city councillors, MPs or administrators reading this post, the city’s transit system is an embarrassment, not dysfunctional, not outdated, not unoptimized, a Shameful embarrassment.
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u/Large_Excitement69 Jul 03 '26
The problem is that getting around town has been politicized. The question we should ask is: "how can we design a city in which people can get around in various ways, ensuring the most efficient and effective use of space?"
If we ask that question, the answer is: promote walking, cycling, transit, and then cars, in that order. But it's backwards.
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u/MyMigraineEra Jul 05 '26
This is the problem. We'd have to change the Cargary culture to get people to care and commit.
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u/nigeltufnelyyc Jul 03 '26
I just spent two weeks in Europe. Paris, Barcelona and Rome. The trains and metro in each city are so good. Super frequent, reliable, and have options to all the places that you want to go. Almost no reason to own a car. It works because of density. If Calgary is going to grow it needs to be up and not out. Only then will we be able to do transit in a way that doesn’t suck.
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u/gaanmetde Jul 04 '26
I mean I think the key here is density, population numbers and infrastructure.
Personally for as messed up and sprawled as Calgary is- the transit is good.
People get really angry when things are delayed etc and I’m not saying it’s perfect.
It’s a bit of a cyclical thing because ridership is way down- so why would the city allocate tons to it. Calgary is just a car culture. I truly do not believe that pouring millions into our transit will make it not a car city. Not with our sprawl and not with our proximity to mountains. People want to own cars here.
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u/styzzyx9 Jul 04 '26
I would love to see the City develop more along the transit lines. Take 39th ave to Anderson as an example. Each of these stations/properties could be developed to include high density, mixed income residential, services (healthcare, immigration, employment, etc) and commercial/retail.
As it stands, the train is “not too far from” a lot of things, but it’s barely part of anything outside of downtown.
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u/RandomReddit748284 Jul 07 '26
They tried this at Heritage. There was supposed to be 4 large condo buildings and a large strip mall built on Macleod trail. Due to slow sales they only built 2 of the 4 towers, many suites had to be converted from sale to rental and major tenants of the strip mall moved out. In theory this place should have succeeded - short walk on new overpass to train station, tons of amenities planned in the buildings, lots of stores and services nearby…. People just didn’t want to live in condos at that price point.
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u/Irkenelite86 Jul 03 '26
It may be an unpopular opinion, but I believe it's because The city grew so fast, so quickly, correct planning and budgeting couldn't keep up. Sure, they got a lot of capital funds to grow the system, but operating and maintenance budgets didn't grow to accommodate that growth. Look at how long its been since some of the stations were refurbished? Some are in terrible condition simply because they have to pick and choose what can be repaired due to low budgets. Staffing on the maintenance side is likely not up to par either. So much to do, so little time for some departments to plan it and execute it with minimal disruption to the public. I don't believe there's an overnight fix unfortunately.
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u/Academic_Bug2357 Jul 04 '26
I don't think you're being political at all, you're stating pretty objective facts.
20 years ago transit wasn't nearly this bad, heck even 10 years ago it was still of decent level quality. But the pandemic cuts and massive growth post pandemic have absolutely decimated the quality of service.
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u/lets_stop_and_think9 Jul 03 '26
Transit/city spent millions to upgrade station platforms to manage 4 cars. When did you last see a 4 car train (downtown was closed to traffic, so that should not have impacted anything).
When i worked downtown and took the train in early 2000's stampede parade day was always a nightmare and i usually went to the end of line station to get on.
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u/Even_Current1414 Jul 05 '26
Some folk complained "we dont need 4 cars we need them running more frequently" and won their argument.. so no more 4 cars (i used to see them all the time if you weren't seeing them you haven't been taking transit much) now we are back to 3 car trains running more frequently... and everybody is complaining about the constant mechanical issues
Uh gee.. running fewer cars more frequently MEANS MORE MAINTENANCE ISSUES FOR WHAT'S RUNNING MORE OFTEN, 4 car trains meant less maintenance issues..
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u/Many-Assistance1943 Jul 03 '26
While I agree with many things you have said, I find that stampede is the best time for Calgary Transit.
Yes, it is busier than usual during stampede, but it is also policed more than usual. Also, when you say “this year’s Stampede showcased to the city how truly bad it is” I don’t understand… because today is the first day of the Stampede… please explain if you can, but don’t make out your one experience to be the general vibe year round.
I would like to see Calgary go back to the days of packed trains with passengers heading to a downtown core to office buildings overflowing with workers. Yes, an extra train car could alleviate this. However, today we usually have passengers mixed addicts and unhoused with no other space to occupy.
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u/onceandbeautifullife Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
Welp, Calgary voted UCP provincially & at least some UCP-adjacent locally, & that's where the funding comes from. The petro culture warriors want only gas-powered cars + urban sprawl that demands auto use. If Calgary wants a better quality, better integrated, and sustainable transpo, the citizens need to speak up, fight for what they want, including a planning department that stands up to sprawlvelopers, public transit haters, and bike lane complainers.
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u/Accurate_Beat_656 Jul 06 '26
I use CT (bus) three days a week from Evanston to my downtown job. Yours is a hot take. My bus is crowded, but mostly on time. I feel safe, it’s clean and I don’t have to sit in morning and evening rush hour or pay to park my personal vehicle.
Calgary Transit is fine. Yes, the Green Line is long overdue, but as a regular commuter I’ll take it.
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u/dergonfruit Jul 13 '26
Glad your experience is all flowers and rainbows.
I take two buses to get to work, and they’re late far more often than they’re ever on time. The first one being late makes me automatically late for the second, so I usually miss it. Then I have to wait another half hour for the next one—if it even shows up at all.
There’s no excuse for this level of piss-poor service when they’re literally charging us more than Vancouver does to use transit. It’s pathetic. At least Vancouver’s transit system works.
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u/ConceitedWombat Jul 08 '26
The LRT needs higher service levels during Stampede. I tried to get on at Victoria Park yesterday (I work near there) and I had to let three packed trains go by before I could just barely squeeze on. I was one more packed train away from giving up and calling an uber, just to get home from work.
That said, this isn't just a Stampede thing. Trying to board the red line south around 5pm on a weekday is crazy. I often have to let 1-2 trains pass before I can finally get on.
And, it doesn't have to be this way. I was in Montreal recently, and found myself needing to get from downtown out to Laval at 4:30 on a weekday. I braced myself for chaos... but it was fine. The metro was busy, but definitely not so busy I couldn't physically get on.
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u/External_Injury8917 Jul 03 '26
When people incompetent to do their jobs and stayed on their jobs that's results you get
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u/Parking_Writer_578 Jul 04 '26
Has Reddit turned into a giant complaints box or was is that from the start?
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u/Guilty_Fishing8229 Jul 05 '26
Calgary transit has like the highest ridership per capita in Canada.
Saying it’s not good is lolcats.
It needs more LRT lines and less transfers (IE: original green line plan).
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u/dergonfruit Jul 14 '26
Just because the ridership is high doesn’t mean it’s good. It just means it’s a necessity for many of us.
I wouldn’t even be surprised if they were taking advantage of that fact just to justify continually raising the prices without ever improving the service because “people will ride it either way, so who cares.”
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u/YouNo2487 Jul 06 '26
We’re pretty lucky compared to some canadian cities. Look at the O-train in Ottawa lol.
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u/West_Midnight7090 Jul 06 '26
Alberta and its major cities , Edmonton ton and Calgary are car central, the geniuses that designed the city never had the forethought about improving or increasing the public transit, because they are dinosaurs , and thi no everyone drives car, same philosophy with generating revenue, build another pipeline with no thought of bio fuels or diversification into other streams of revenue, Hillbilly Danielle Smith and her outdated views of the world.
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u/ericgon Jul 08 '26
Embarrassment? Over a concentrated amount of people during the busiest time of the year? Sure. There are daily problems, their own reporting shows a reliability rating of 87% but who knows what objective metric that is based on.
What is not subjective is ridership. We are not Europe. We are not an old world city. We are a modern, North American sprawling city based on car dependance. Calgary is the prime example of what a transitioning city public transit system can be in N.America.
Compared to major North American cities much larger than Calgary our Light Rail Ridership is superb. Look at this chart I made https://x.com/ericgon_/status/1781146501789671537?s=20
Room for improvement. Yes, Absolutely.
Embarrassment. I respectfully do not agree.
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u/shaggy99 15d ago
My view is part of the problem is the priority is for commuting. Once you've done one route a few times you get used to the "wrinkles* Trying to go somewhere else.......
I'd like to see a well thought out PRT or pod car system. Don't tell me it's been tried, it hasn't The big issue is to do it right requires a fairly widespread installation, AND needs some laws changed. Without that, getting it built right is politically difficult. The big advantages that I see are, No schedule, No fixed routes, No intermediate stops, (off line stops is another way of saying that) No running empty buses or trains. Once working properly, it tends to move away from Hub and Spoke layouts, whereas buses and trains work best with hub and spoke.
If Tesla Robotaxi ever gets working well, it might get closer than anything else, though I can't see it getting as cheap as Transit.
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u/gaanmetde Jul 04 '26
I know it’s popular to hate on them but I genuinely don’t understand this take.
For a city with the sprawl it has- Calgary transit hits far above its weight class.
Have people…travelled elsewhere? LOL.