City officials are hoping Calgarians will be riding the West LRT rail before year’s end.

December 2012 had long been the target date for opening, but a three-month extension was requested by the contractor, pushing the opening back to March 2013.

Spokesperson for the project Tara Norton-Merrin said they may be back on track to cut the ribbon in December.

With contractor testing on the line wrapping up, Norton-Merrin said the city is hoping to take possession of the track in late October or early November.

At that point, testing will begin using their own operators, she said.

“A lot of things can happen between then but we haven’t ruled out a December opening date,” she said.
Norton-Merrin said once the contractor completes their portion of the work, the city will also be able to establish a firmer opening date.

Area Ald. Richard Pootmans said he’s hoping to see the new leg of the CTrain operational as soon as possible.

“People are very excited about the LRT, the sooner the better,” he said. “We are pretty thrilled that it’s coming our way. We are estimating it could take as many as 6,000 cars off the road each day — it will really ease the level of congestion.”

Norton-Merrin said at the latest, the LRT should be operational by late February.

— With files from Jeremy Nolais