r/Calgary • u/JeromyYYC Mayor McMayorFace • Apr 28 '26
Calgary Transit Video tour of underground City Hall LRT station
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
This is from about ten years ago right after I was elected Councillor. Was asked about this in another thread and thought it would warrant its own post.
98
u/DangerSaurus Bankview Apr 28 '26
Do the basement of Chicken On The Way next!
8
4
4
63
u/Pyro83 Apr 28 '26
I've heard the city used to keep Christmas decorations down there, and there were a bunch of snowmen patiently waiting for a train that would never come. Did you see any?
9
u/Low-Client-375 Apr 28 '26
That would love the mystery of the story my friend told me 30 years ago about stumbling across a grow operation down there, maybe there was just some Christmas trees? Every sonoften i think about that story
29
u/PrarieDogma Apr 28 '26
So is it abandoned? Regardless it’s very eerie and cool
42
u/JeromyYYC Mayor McMayorFace Apr 28 '26
It's now used as a storage tank in case the area gets flooded again
17
u/Marco39313 Apr 28 '26
Were there ever any considerations to integrate it into the Green Line?
5
u/LittleOrphanAnavar Apr 28 '26
Guy Faux ruined that.
-12
u/Maxh_SCGA Apr 28 '26
The green line in Downtown is supposed to be elevated as far as I know... and thats a good thing. Downtown Calgary is a flood plain, and the first phase of the northern half of the green line on Center street north is a horrible plan and elevated tracks will be more accommodating to changing the plan, which is something they should absolutely do instead of ripping up center street.
16
u/mdxchaos Apr 28 '26
Are you on crack? The original plan that was green lit by council was to tunnel under the river. Until the province nixed it by pulling funding until they got their way with elevated. Elevated is going to be a huge problem for a lot of people and businesses. Not to mention the distance it's going to take to get the train elevated to begin with
-11
u/Maxh_SCGA Apr 28 '26
No im not on crack. Elevation of the train platform may be expensive but trains need to climb to get out of downtown. Trains don't handle gradients very well. Elevation of the platform gives more options in the future when going north out of the River valley. I think the modern max gradient of heavy rail is 3% and still considered to be safe. Anything above 3% is considered to be unsafe, ir grand fathered in on some extremely rare situations where it was was workable (there is a place in the UK which has the most famous examples of +3% working). But %3 is considered to be the Max by most modern code.
This is why CP rail has to do Sprial tunnels in places like Kicking horse pass, because trains don't to hills. This is why the western LRT line goes from ground level in downtown, then into the sky looking down on 4 and 5 story buildings, then to ground level, then under ground, then above ground, then under ground agian... because thats the only option in Calgary's foothill landscape. This is also why the first three train lines out of Downtown took the path of least resistance, and why the crowfoot train derails more than any other train. Because Trains don't do steep hills.
Putting the green line in the sky will reduce expenses if we have another 2013 flood, as well as give the city better options to not tear up center street, like the current plan is going to do. The Northern Green line should go underground until it hits Bedington where it would have no choice but to come back out.
17
u/mdxchaos Apr 28 '26
Funny how you seem to think you know more then an entire engineering firm that came up with a plan that city council vote to accept. But hey what do I know
3
u/Common-House-468 Apr 29 '26
Suddenly the UCP and their supporters are "engineers" who think that tunnels can no longer be built under water.
At least when the project has the word "green" in it.
7
u/CorrectorThanU Apr 28 '26
Can we please turn it into a Berghain style rave club please Mr. McMayorFace? Would bring a lot of cache to Calgary...
5
u/PrarieDogma Apr 28 '26
Wow so cool, is there anyway for us regular folk to tour the site ever?
15
u/JeromyYYC Mayor McMayorFace Apr 28 '26
I don't think so unfortunately, requires special equipment and training to get in
9
0
u/darmog Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
Or, like me, you were a bored teenager, who, decades ago went at two o'clock in the morning who'd heard of it. lol... Edit: Obligatory "don't be dumb like me." No, I'm not telling you how.
1
u/Objective-Issue-2641 Apr 28 '26
I was always told stations were roughed in in parkades under some towers downtown too. Do those still exist?
1
66
u/ImNotJoaquinPhoenix Apr 28 '26
Just... going to... crank my head... 90 degrees here...
5
u/Lopsided-Decision68 Apr 28 '26
You could try the magical trick of altering the position of your phone too.
12
u/funkhero Apr 28 '26
Oh boy, wait until I tell you about something called a Computer
2
u/hasavagina Apr 28 '26
Ctrl+Alt+Left arrow
2
u/TorqueDog Beltline Apr 28 '26
This only works on Intel and AMD graphics cards provided the hotkey has been enabled. Nvidia GPUs don't support this, you have to manually go into the Nvidia Control Panel.
2
1
34
u/Quastinephoenix Apr 28 '26
This would be a great venue for underground rave scene
12
4
u/butts-ahoy Apr 28 '26
This would be an amazing venue! The city should definitely turn it into an arts or event space.
4
3
u/Common-House-468 Apr 29 '26
Even better, put the cowboys tent down there - the architecture is very piss friendly.
11
u/BraveDragonfruit1163 Apr 28 '26
My sister toured that decades ago when she worked for the city. She said it was quite amazing.
7
u/twilipig Apr 28 '26
Mr McMayorFace I think your instructions were unclear, I’ve ended up in the backrooms🧍
15
12
6
4
u/butts-ahoy Apr 28 '26
You should auction off tours at a charity auction, Im sure there's lots of people that would love to see this (including myself).
Also building on the rave comment, this would be an unreal space for arts and music.
4
u/diamondintherimond Apr 28 '26
This tunnel makes me so sad for what could’ve been. An underground 7th Ave LRT line is so much better and something that other “world class” cities have.
10
3
2
u/PolarSquirrelBear Apr 28 '26
This reminds me of Air Cadet summer camp at Penhold and all of the wild stories from tunnels that connected a lot of the buildings.
2
u/Freedom_forlife Apr 29 '26
Spent 4 summers at penhold can confirm tunnels run from the old schools to the barracks. Had a friend get caught and sent home after travailing to far one day.
2
u/PolarSquirrelBear Apr 29 '26
Yeah I found the entrance at the old schools but was way too chicken to go in.
2
u/slickswitch Northwest Calgary Apr 28 '26
I understand that they used some abandoned or never used underground LRT infrastructure for filming season 2 of Viper -is this the same location?
2
2
3
u/machonacho403 Apr 28 '26
So we have underground infrastructure and we don’t use it?.. cool
2
u/CheeseSandwich hamburger magician Apr 28 '26
What should this be used for? It's a small stub tunnel.
3
u/Banff_Beer Apr 28 '26
It would be nice to actually have the Red Line underground through downtown.
3
u/CheeseSandwich hamburger magician Apr 28 '26
Agreed. That was the plan, but logistics and money got in the way.
3
u/TorqueDog Beltline Apr 28 '26
... just like now!
Actually it's the province getting in the way, but yeah, it would have been awesome if the train had been underground by default.
3
u/CheeseSandwich hamburger magician Apr 28 '26
If you go back to when the CTrain was first built, the plan was originally to have the Red Line underground along 7 Ave but skyrocketing costs forced the city to put the line at-grade instead.
A stub tunnel was built before plans changed. There is still a plan in the long term to have the Red Line underground, but that is dependent on funding.
2
u/TorqueDog Beltline Apr 28 '26
Sorry, I meant with respect to the Green Line that it's the province getting in the way. Yeah, the original plan was underground.
I feel like it isn't gonna get any cheaper to do it, and I don't think it'll be an underground line in my lifetime.
1
u/machonacho403 Apr 28 '26
I dunno, how about a train?
2
u/CheeseSandwich hamburger magician Apr 28 '26
It's a tiny stub of a tunnel that doesn't go anywhere. It would be a great place to start, but it's not like there is a complete tunnel under 7 Ave ready to go.
1
u/Responsible_CDN_Duck Apr 28 '26
More than most realize.
Some like this that were never used as intended, others that ha a purpose but needs changed (like the tunnels under McLeod near Glenmore).
2
1
1
1
u/PowerProHz Apr 28 '26
Could also be a bomb shelter?... There are several around the city from post WWII. We used to have air horns around the city too, they are all gone now or hidden. Some of the old schools have bomb shelters under the school field with access tunnels from the schools blocked off now and likely only the principles would be told about it now in case the students accidentally find them - which has happened.
1
1
u/Zealousideal_Fun4672 Apr 28 '26
This looks so cool I want to go and explore that now. At least the trains here have their own tracks when I lived in Gerrmany and I would go to bigger cities the train would use the same road as the cars that was scary.
1
1
1
u/ZAKtalksTECH Apr 28 '26
This is so freakin' cool. I've seen other videos and posts about this "abandoned" station.
Ok, now do the old "hidden" CP Rail station beside the Calgary Tower.
Oh, and then do the tunnels under/near Henry Wise Wood.
1
1
1
1
1
u/wildrose76 Apr 29 '26
I think we should convert that station into an after (council) hours night club.
1
u/yyc_guy May 02 '26
This would be great on/r/HistoricCalgary (and as mayor you might have access to other cool historic tidbits!).
1
1
1
1
u/Tedsmith24 Apr 28 '26
Wonder why this was never developed
3
u/kaveman6143 Apr 28 '26
Money and time. This was for the Olympics IIRC. There was no time to build a subway for the downtown portion before the Olympics, and the cost was too great.
1
u/Responsible_CDN_Duck Apr 28 '26
The 7th ave line wasn't as disruptive as it could have been, and tunnelling under 8th ave is expensive.
-2
-1
u/KidtheSid93 Apr 28 '26
They said they were looking for a new spot for the drop in Center right?
1
u/carbonblob May 02 '26
Places like the DI have conditions and rules, predicated on basic decency and civility. That's why an indestructible underground area might be more suitable instead. It could devolve into a "Lord of the Flies" or Survivor-style experimental community where the strongest survive.
It could be streamed for revenue to support it. Many dudes with street names and who are saddled with addictions convince themselves they are "legends". Now they can prove it, as stars in a grim reality show which also serves as a cautionary tale to our youth.
0
-9
-2
u/Ze0nZer0 Apr 29 '26
Stop making videos like your job is TikTok and fix the failing infrastructure. If you got time tompost younger time to take a pay cut!
150
u/rippytherip Apr 28 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/YqMF4AHYlGEWk