Councillor encourages city to rename Fish Creek-Lacombe station after St. Mary's University

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A proposal to rename the Fish Creek-Lacombe CTrain station after St. Mary’s University will soon go before city council.

Ward 14 Coun. Peter Demong introduced a notice of motion at Tuesday’s executive committee meeting to rebrand the Red Line stop as St. Mary’s University-Fish Creek station.

Executive committee members voted unanimously Tuesday in favour of council discussing Demong’s proposal at its regular meeting Feb. 27.

Demong noted that several other CTrain stations located near a post-secondary campus — the University of Calgary, SAIT, Alberta University of the Arts and Bow Valley College — include the name of the university in their title.

Roughly 1,100 students attend St. Mary’s University, according to Demong’s notice of motion, and many use transit to get to the campus.

The LRT station is across Macleod Trail S.E. from the St. Mary’s campus.

In a letter of support to council, St. Mary’s University’s faculty association president Dr. Carolyn Salomons said renaming the LRT station would highlight the growth of the private Catholic institution, which she noted is the sole university in southeast Calgary.

“This will help increase the visibility of St. Mary’s and provide another point of recognition for potential students,” Salomons wrote.

The last CTrain station the city renamed was the City Hall-Bow Valley College Station, which was changed to add the college’s name in September. The downtown stop was previously just called the City Hall station.