and pedestrians by fences and concrete bollards. The downtown 7th Avenue transit way is limited to trains, buses, and emergency vehicles, with private cars prohibited. Trains are given priority right of way at most road crossings outside of downtown. As a result, trains are able to operate at outside of downtown, and along the 7th Avenue corridor. 7th Avenue is a free fare zone, intended as a downtown people-mover to encourage use for short hops through the downtown core. The city manages to achieve very high transit capacity on the 7th Avenue transit corridor by staging the traffic lights, so that all the trains move forward in unison to the next station on the synchronized green lights, and load and unload passengers on the intervening red lights. The trains are now 1 block long, but buses occupy the empty gaps every second block between trains and the buses unload and load passengers while the trains pass them. In 2001, the U.S. General Accounting Office released a study of the cost-effectiveness of American light rail systems. Although not included in the report, Calgary had a capital cost of US$24.5 million per mile (year 2000 dollars), which would be the sixth lowest (Edmonton was given as US$41.7 million per mile). Because of its high ridership (then 188,000 boardings per weekday, now over 300,000) the capital cost per passenger was $2,400 per daily passenger, by far the lowest of the 14 systems compared, while the closest American system was Sacramento at $9,100 per weekday passenger). Operating costs are also low, in 2005, the CTrain cost $163 per operating hour to operate. With an average of 600 boardings per hour, in 2001 cost per LRT passenger was $0.27, compared to $1.50 for bus passengers in Calgary. Facilities Anderson Garage – LRV indoor storage and training facilities Haysboro Garage – small indoor and outdoor LRV storage; LRV yard and Turner Storage Area Oliver Bowen Maintenance Centre – major LRV repair and shops; storage for 60 cars (and up to 108 cars after expansion) See also Calgary municipal railway Light rail in Canada Light rail in North America List of tram and light-rail transit systems References External links Calgary Transit's official website LRT Technical Information Greenline (Previously SETWAY) transit.mtroyal.ca (Google Maps visualization of Calgary Transit data) Network map by the City of Calgary. Railway lines opened in 1981 Light rail in Canada 600 V DC railway