Transit link between Chestermere and Calgary being explored

Intermunicipal Committee looking at feasibility of connecting Chestermere to Calgary Transit

After watching City of Calgary busses turn into East Hills in front of him on two occasions in early December, Chestermere’s Mayor Marshall Chalmers got thinking about transportation in the city.

Specifically, he wondered if it would be possible to connect Chestermere to that transit line.

“I [was] heading to meetings in Calgary early in the morning, and as I’m heading in on 17th a Calgary Transit bus turns in front of me into East Hills,” said Chalmers, “I’d never seen that before.”

When he got back into the city, he spoke with Chestermere’s CAO about what the best way to approach Calgary about connecting Chestermere and the new MAX Purple Bus Rapid Transit Line.

He was advised to had it added to the agenda of the next of the regular Intermunicipal Committee (IMC) meeting that Chalmers attends with the City of Calgary.

The topic was added to the Friday, Dec. 7 IMC.

“As a result, I told my little story,” said Chalmers, “they said absolutely let’s take a look at it and see if it’s feasible.”

On the committee representing Calgary are Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra and Councillor Ray Jones.

According to Chalmers, the decision was made by the committee that the City of Calgary administration staff who sit on the committee would look into the feasibility of his idea.

With the wheels put in motion to explore a transit link between Chestermere and Calgary, Chalmers said he was surprised to hear over the weekend both Councillor Carra and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi speaking in support of the idea to Calgary media.

“Both Carra and Nenshi jumped all over this,” said Chalmers.

“I’m extremely pleased that they’re showing their desire to look at regional solutions,” he said.

And while transportation has not been a top priority of Chalmers and City Council, Chestermere Utilities Inc. and cutting taxes taking most of their focus, it is needed here in Chestermere.

“The need for it, if we’re talking about aging in place one of the services that we don’t have to cover off that age group is transportation,” said Chalmers.

He said he has also been asked about transit by many of the city’s newer residents who would like to see a link into Calgary for recreation or accessing post-secondary schools.

Chalmers said that the city is working on finding a solution but that they need to be cautious as transit is expensive and reliant on city taxes for funding.

“Transportation is very heavy on the tax dollar,” said Chalmers, “you might see typically the overall cost of transportation supported 60 to 70 per cent by the tax dollar.”

“You’ve got to be awful careful, you’ve got to make sure that when you start looking at this it’s really balanced between the need and the cost,” he said.

In response to Canada's Online News Act and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) removing access to Canada's local news from their platforms, Anchor Media Inc encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this site and downloading the Rogue Radio App. Send your news tips, story ideas, pictures, and videos to info@anchormedia.ca.

About the author

Staff Writer

Staff Writer

In response to Canada's Online News Act and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) removing access to local news from their platforms, Anchor Media Inc encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this site and downloading the Rogue Radio App. Send your news tips, story ideas, pictures, and videos to info@anchormedia.ca

7 Comments

Click here to post a comment
  • I will say big thank you to our Mayor for his effort to bring public transit to Chestermere. As our kids go to University of Calgary or other institutions for education and our seniors need to go to Calgary for any reason(shopping, medical appointments or family issues). We need public transit in Chestermere.
    This is true Calgary transit can give good service to our community as they already have good service in place for the city. Calgary transit aldo have trained operators,good mechanics, 3 garage facilities(4th on they are going to open in March 2019) to store and operate the transit.
    We can reduce many cars from roads going to Calgary everyday. With new development of Belverdere district, Calgary transit is going to expand to Conrich Road and 17 Ave. SE any ways which is very close to Rainbow Rd. or East Chestermer Drive.
    I will request chestermere’s residents to please stand with our city council and our Mayor Chalmers on this issue of public transportation in our city.
    Thanks to Mayor and Chestermere Anchor newspaper.

    • I have shared this news with number of my friends and relatives in Chestermere and they all are so excited! I recieved nothing but positive feedback about our Mayor and new counsellors in Chestermere as to what a great job they doing in reducing our taxes, utilities and styling in touwuth the residents. If there is one thing missing in our great city Chestermere is a good public transit. With this initiative of partnership with City of Calgary transportation, this gap will be bridged it will make our city even great! We support this initiative whole heartedly. Please let us know we can help. This initiative is so good for our environment as well as reduce some vehicles from the already congested roads. Keep up the wonderful work City of Chestermere counsel team! We would like to see you back in for the next term.

  • This is a great initiative by the Mayor and the City Council. It’s a wonderful opportunity for both the cities to expand and explore new areas of development.

  • I work for city of calgary as a Calgary transit operator on the previous elections in chestermere I have mentioned about connecting Calgary transit with our city of chestermere it will be a great wonderful approach and a successful opportunity for everyone here in chestermere we should make a park and ride in front of east hills centre and have everyone park there and connect with Calgary Transit to get to their destination safely this will be a big change coming soon let’s make it happen and make our city more safer with lesser cars on the road and help each other out thanks


What's Playing on CFTR

Launch Player in New Window 


What's Playing on CFTR

Launch Player in New Window