As the City of Calgary was growing in the 1950's, there was not very much thought taken into consideration for continuing to operate any form of rail system for transit. At that time, there was a Rails to Rubber phase where the street cars were replaced with motorbuses and trolleybuses. Their lower cost of operation and ease of flexibility was what made them popular. However, during the 1960's, there were some feasibility studies done to research any form of a subway or rail service that would run through Calgary. In 1966, there was a consultant's report that was published for the city. In this report, it suggested having a subway system constructed to serve down the south corridor and towards the Northwest, much like it does almost 40 years later.
However, even though it would take at least four years to build, test, and start operation of an LRT system, an immediate solution was needed. The solution that came to Calgarians was Blue Arrow express bus service. This form of bus service operated like a normal bus route except it was only operated as a limited stop service (Very similar to express service). Today, that bus service name is still in existence, however, only the Route 105 - Bowness is the only bus route that could be considered a "Limited Stop" service version of the Blue Arrow express service. A lot of the bus routes that operated as a Blue Arrow ran into the Southwest areas of Calgary where LRT service was expected to develop. The concept of the Blue Arrow bus service was expanded in a 1973 report titled A Balanced Transportation Concept for the City of Calgary.
Two of the biggest tasks to battle with planning an LRT system included doing land studies for where to have the LRT line aligned, and finding a suitable vehicle to hold up to Calgary's standards. The land studies included one in 1975 that was titled Light Rail Transit for Calgary which suggested the LRT alignment should be down MacLeod Trail South, since MacLeod Trail is a major artery road. As the LRT line was constructed, from approximately 17th Avenue South to just South of Glenmore Trail, the LRT line runs either beside or within 2 blocks of MacLeod Trail on the east side, going through one tunnel at about 25th Avenue South and crossing the Elbow River. Just south of Glenmore Trail, the LRT line passes underneath MacLeod Trail and runs on the west side of the road, approximately 2 to 5 blocks west, where it ended at Anderson Road. From 42 Avenue to Anderson Road, Calgary Transit leased the land from CP Rail to share the railway right-of-way so that not many businesses or residential areas were affected by the construction.
As for finding a suitable LRV, Calgary Transit officials would research around the world to find a suitable LRV car to do the job. As the North American market was just starting to develop, it was virtually impossible to find a LRV car that has proven technology where it would run almost trouble-free. There was only one company in Canada at the time that would be able to construct LRV car, which was Urban Transit Development Corporation. In the 1980's, UTDC produced ALRV cars for Vancouver to operate starting around the time Expo '86 was to start, along with having some Subway cars in operation in the Greater Toronto Area. In the United States, Light Rail Transit was being developed down there too. San Francisco and Boston were having LRV cars being built by Boeing, which manufacturers Airplanes. One LRV car that was going to be tested in Vancouver, was a prototype Siemens LRV that had folding stairs for street level loading. That car was later acquired by the Edmonton Radial Railway Society in Fort Edmonton Park. However, as mentioned before, Calgary Transit wanted a proven LRV car, but could be expandable to operate in more than a single car operation.
For that proven LRV car, Calgary Transit looked at Europe where in places like Frankfurt Germany, there was LRV cars produced by Siemens/DuWag of the U2 Model. The U2 model of car had been in service since 1968 in Frankfurt and could easily be adapted to the North American operation. In North America, the U2 Model had already been ordered and was being put in operation for Edmonton Transit. Edmonton's LRV's were delivered in 1977 and one was even put on display for Klondike Days in July 1977 (It was on a low deck trailer). Calgary Transit's first 27 cars came at a negotiated cost at $954,000 for each car and it's components, with the bodies and electrical systems manufactured in Germany. The car bodies were brought over by ship to the ports in Vancouver, BC, then brought out by rail to Calgary for assembly. The first units started arriving in Vancouver for delivery to Calgary on January 9, 1980, arriving in Calgary 8 days later on January 17, 1980.
To help keep costs down on the duty of importing the LRV cars, Canadian content was incorporated to these cars. Approximately 42% of what was in these cars was Canadian content. The cars were delivered as shells so that the interiors, trucks (Bogies), and the articulation joint could be assembled in Canada. Assembly of Calgary Transit's U2 cars was completed at the Anderson Shops. Delivery was made by a spur that was constructed off of CP Rail's MacLeod Subdivision which later remained until 2001 when the South LRT extension was under construction. As the trains were being delivered, they were being assembled, tested, and ready to put online as the line was under construction. Something unique about the first order as compared to the later orders of Siemens/DuWag U2 Model LRV cars is the door to the driver's cab swung into the passenger area on cars 2001 to 2027 and 2028 and up had a sliding door that went behind the driver's seat.
The Siemens/DuWag U2 LRV cars are powered by a 600 Volt DC traction motor, with two motors on each car, one at each end. Each of the motors have a rating of 150 kilowatts at 1200 RPM with the power consumption of 3.7 kilowatts per vehicle kilometer of operation. Each of the cars has its own pantograph that collects the 600 Volts of electricity from the overhead lines and can operate on a auxiliary power supply of 24 Volts on a limited basis. Power substations are located approximately every 1.6 kilometers along the line and has an approximate coverage of the system that if one substation went down, that the substation before and after could theoretically have enough power to cover the system. The only track area where the voltage is higher along the line is around the Anderson Shops where the overhead lines can hold 713 to 714 volts. Throughout the system, the overhead lines are mounted so it forms a zig-zag to reduce the wear on the carbon inserts that absorb the power. In the winter time, the first trains out in the morning can create a light show from the pantographs clearing the ice from the overhead lines. It can almost give the illusion that the train is starting a fire. The overhead lines throughout the system is strung above the tracks approximately 5.7 meters, with the lines a bit lower in the downtown core for the overpasses that connects the cities +15 network of covered walkways.
Each of the LRV cars has an overall length of 24.4 meters and can be 73.2 meters long in a 3-car consist. The cars are 2.65 meters wide. While there is seating for 64 passengers, there is room for 97 standees based upon 0.25 square meters per passenger, making a total desirable capacity of 161 passengers with a maximum of 256 passengers on a crush load per each car, with a maximum of 768 passengers in a crush load on a 3-car consist. There is 4 passenger doors on each side that are double folding and are about 1.3 meters wide by 1.9 meters tall per door. Calgary's U2 cars weren't ordered with the wheelchair accessibility option when delivered, which included the seatbelts on the back of two of the seats, one on either side of the car at doors 2 and 12, along with the curved stanchion at those two doors and the absence of the stanchions in the centre of the aisle. Calgary Transit later retrofitted this option on these cars later in operation.
With each of the cars weighing 32.6 tonnes at a dead weight, they can accept a maximum payload of 17.7 tonnes per vehicle. The cars have a Megi rubber chevron, double coil spring suspension on each truck. The cars have three types of brakes on the train which include dynamic, disc, and magnetic track brakes, along with the auxiliary and emergency brake system. Each of the cars are reversible and can be operated in either direction. Calgary Transit uses ARA-A 100 rails on the main lines outside of the downtown core and Ri 60 Girder rail on the 7th Avenue Transit mall. The rails on the main line are laid on concrete ties with crushed ballast, fastened with Pandrol E clips. On bridges and through tunnels the rails are laid on Lord Direct Fixation fasteners on concrete plinths. However, on the 7th Avenue transit mall, the rails are buried in-street on compressible supports. The actual noise level created by the C-Train is 72 DBA at 25 m.
As the rest of the Calgary Transit C-Train line was constructed, each of those lines will be discussed in their own section which will describe the stations, each of the lines, and their features which links to these sections can be found on the main Calgary LRT Index page, along with extensions to the line too. Please read each of the individual line's for their history about the stations, how their routing affected the neighborhoods, and more too!