7th Avenue Lighting Upgrades – Improved visibility for our customers

Calgary Transit has recently upgraded the lighting on all CTrain platforms from Downtown West/Kerby to City Hall, to improve visibility for customers and security staff.

This important upgrade is one of many measures that we are implementing to fulfill our commitment to customer safety. Enhanced lighting allows security cameras to capture clearer footage of platform activity and enables greater visibility across and within platforms.

As part of a coordinated, multi-faceted approach to safety, Calgary Transit is prioritizing increased transit patrols, enhanced surveillance and coordinated response. The improvement of the lighting on all CTrain platforms from Downtown West/Kerby to City Hall aids in enhanced surveillance and is an important step to activating system-wide changes for the safety of Calgarians.

In addition to significantly improving visibility, the upgraded fixtures use highly efficient LED lights which will serve to reduce overall energy consumption and minimize maintenance costs for the next 10 years.

“Calgarians and customers will notice the drastic difference in the increased lighting levels," says Sharon Fleming, Director of Calgary Transit. "As we continue to take steps to improve transit riders' safety and customer comfort, increased visibility is key to helping our team investigate situations and dispatch personnel as quickly as possible.”

Calgary Transit’s Operations Control Centre monitors more than 1,200 CCTV cameras across the CTrain system and can dispatch officers and other emergency services as required. When a customer presses a help button/phone at a CTrain station, the Operations Control Centre gets an immediate visual of the area surrounding that help button/phone, so that the security team can communicate directly with the customer.

Other ongoing efforts include:

-          The presence of Calgary Transit Ambassadors throughout the system, who alert the Operations Control Centre when they witness or come across issues or incidents.

-          Increased staffing levels at the Operations Control Centre where the dispatching of officers, monitoring CCTV cameras and responding to safety texts from customers takes place.

As always, customers can also use our Transit Watch program to report a safety concern or incident.  

• Text: 74100 to discreetly report a safety concern.
• Call 262-1000 option #1
• Use the help button/phone at CTrain stations

Before and after comparisons of a sample of the stations are available at calgarytransit.com/news.