Transportation in Halifax, Nova Scotia

Halifax Stanfield International Airport

Halifax Stanfield International Airport, which serves HRM and virtually all of peninsular Nova Scotia, is located in the northern part of the municipality near the border with Hants County in Enfield.

The Shearwater Heliport is a Royal Canadian Air Force heliport that is part of a collection of properties comprising CFB Halifax. Shearwater is located on the eastern side of Halifax Harbour and used to serve fixed wing aircraft as well as helicopters prior to its conversion to a heliport in the early 2000s.

There are also five separate heliports located in the HRM urban core, several for hospitals. Several privately run aerodromes are also located in rural areas.

The CFAV Firebrand, a Royal Canadian Navy fire boat underway in Halifax Harbour.

The Halifax Port Authority manages many of the commercial port operations on Halifax Harbour, including bulk cargo, general cargo and intermodal container terminals. The Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Coast Guard also have extensive waterfront facilities.

The second largest port facility in HRM is located at Sheet Harbour. Also managed by the Halifax Port Authority (since 2011), the port of Sheet Harbour operates as a local port and is primarily used to ship forest products from the Musquodoboit Valley as well as the industrial Pictou County area during the winter months (when Pictou Harbour is ice-bound).

VIA rail station interior, 2012

HRM is the eastern terminus of the Canadian National Railway (CN), which provides direct freight service to Montreal, Toronto, and Chicago for cargo arriving at either of the Port of Halifax's two container terminals, or the port's general cargo and specialized cargo piers. CN operates rail lines around both the east and west sides of the harbour, serving Halifax and Dartmouth respectively.

The Windsor and Hantsport Railway is a short line railway which operated a former Canadian Pacific Railway line in HRM from its interchange point with CN at Windsor Junction through to the agricultural heartland of Nova Scotia at New Minas in the Annapolis Valley. This rail line ceased operation in 2010, however the track and right of way remain intact for a possible future resumption of service.

Ocean Limited at Halifax

Via Rail Canada also operates from the Halifax Railway Station where the Ocean, a passenger train equipped with sleeper cars operates three days a week to Truro, Moncton, and Montreal. The Halifax Railway Station also serves as the terminus for intercity buses (operated by Maritime Bus) which connect with destinations across the Maritimes.

Two important branch rail lines operated by CN were abandoned in the Halifax Regional Municipality in recent decades. One line ran along the Eastern Shore from Dartmouth to Musquodoboit Harbour and up the Musquodoboit Valley, serving the agriculture and forestry and pelletized lime industries. The other line ran along the South Shore from Halifax to Bridgewater and on to Yarmouth. The rail corridors of both routes are still intact and used as recreational pathways, preserved by the provincial and municipal governments for possible reinstatement of rail service.

Roads and bridges

The A. Murray MacKay Bridge is one of two suspension bridges across Halifax Harbour. Together, they carry 100,000 vehicles per day.[1][2]

The urban core is divided by Halifax Harbour and is linked by two suspension bridges: the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge, since 1955, and the A. Murray MacKay Bridge, since 1970.

Traffic is problematic in older parts of the urban core area due to geographic constrictions and an aging road network designed for less vehicle capacity than is currently being handled. The Halifax Peninsula, similar to an island, has several bottleneck points through which any traffic leaving the area must pass:

• the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge
• the A. Murray MacKay Bridge
• the Armdale traffic circle
• the Bayers Road and Connaught Avenue interchange to the Highway 102 freeway
• the Windsor Street exchange in Fairview with the Bedford Highway (Trunk 2)

Traffic and congestion

Traffic on Barrington Street, Halifax's main street.

Vehicle traffic density is increasing somewhat on the peninsula, however, the population of workers living in suburban areas or commuting from more distant exurban/outskirts has increased at a much higher rate in recent decades. Roads in existing developed suburban areas and the historic districts on the Halifax Peninsula cannot be easily expanded.

Halifax's compact downtown area is connected by an indoor "pedway" system featuring passages over and under streets and through shopping centres and office towers.

Several controversial road widening projects are being debated, including one for Bayers Road, and for Robie Street, the major north-south artery on the peninsula. Chebucto Road was widened for a distance of 125 m (410 ft) between Mumford Road and the Armdale Roundabout, expanding the width from 2 lanes to 3 (centre reversible). It was controversial because the municipal government expropriated land from residential landowners.

Provincial roads and expressways

Some newer neighbourhoods in the municipality include a network of expressways (Nova Scotia 100-series highways) developed during the 1960s-1980s (Highways 101, 102, 103, 107, 111, and 118); however these roads serve mainly to dump high-speed traffic onto the low-speed urban street network.

Many of the roads in the rural areas of the municipality are two lane provincial collector and trunk highways, the longest being Trunk 7 which runs from Bedford east to the boundary with Guysborough County at Ecum Secum.

Proposed infrastructure

In 1963, an urban expressway to be called Harbour Drive was proposed to run along the eastern side of the Peninsula.[3] it met with fierce opposition, but not before construction of the Cogswell Interchange, what would turn out to be an overbuilt series of roads, ramps and roadway immediately north of the downtown, effectively curtailing its natural development. By 2014, the infrastructure had aged sufficiently to warrant its removal and in 2016 the municipal government voted to hire a company to develop a plan for its removal and replacement by a more appropriate road network.[4]

A proposed bridge across the Northwest Arm to relieve traffic congestion on the Armdale Rotary (it would connect at South Street near Dalhousie University) was rejected several times by residents of the peninsula's affluent South End and by environmentalists advocating improved rapid transit and better planning to densify residential development close to locations of employment.

In 2008 the Halifax Dartmouth Bridge Commission released a report on a possible third harbour crossing which considered both a six-lane bridge, costing $1.1 Billion, and a four-lane tunnel, costing $1.4 Billion, extending from the southern terminus of Highway 111 to the southern end of the peninsula near the Halifax Ocean Terminals.

Because of the insular nature of the central business area, the concept of congestion tolling has been floated in the city from time to time. In 2011, a scholarly report studied the feasibility of implementing such a scheme.[5]

The Chain of Lakes Multipurpose Trail, was opened in 2011, adds 7.25 kilometres to the off-road trail network in HRM.[7]

There are many parks and some disconnected trails in the HRM urban core. There are proposals for a Halifax Urban Greenway, which is envisioned to ultimately connect or construct trails around the entire perimeter of Halifax Harbour and the Bedford Basin to link downtown Halifax and Dartmouth, however implementation is moving slowly. The most notable achievement to date was the completion in 2011 of the Beaufort Avenue Multi-use Trail in South End Halifax.[8] Most streets in the urban core have sidewalks and pedestrian crossings for major roads are signalized.

The Chain of Lakes Multipurpose Trail uses a rail corridor purchased from CN in 2011. Formerly known as the Chester Spur, it was once part of the Halifax and Southwestern Railway, and was abandoned in 2009.

Halifax Regional Council has a stated interest in improving bicycle transport in the urban core. After the 2000 municipal election a part-time coordinating position was created to oversee the planning and implementation of a bicycle transport plan which was published in 2002 as the Blueprint for a Bicycle-Friendly HRM.[9] The coordinating position was eliminated during budget cuts in 2003 but a new permanent position was later created, that of Active Transportation coordinator. A cycling map was published in 2005 and updated in 2009 and 2012.[10] Meanwhile, an Active Transportation master plan was completed in 2006[11] and a plan review was initiated in 2013.[12] The 3-kilometre Dartmouth Harbourfront Walkway[13] was built in 2003 and the 6-kilometre Bedford-Sackville Connector was completed in 2006 at a cost of nearly a million dollars.[14] on its completion, it allowed pedestrians and cyclists to safely move between suburban Sackville and Bedford for the first time since the completion of Highway 102 in the 1960s.[15][16] In 2009, the city obtained the Chester Spur of the Canadian National Railways, an abandoned rail line, at a cost of $2,700,000.[17] In 2011 the tracks were removed and the paved Chain of Lakes Multipurpose Trail was built in the rail corridor. Plans were advancing in 2012 for an peninsular bike route.[18]

Overall, HRM remains fairly difficult for bicycles, partially as a result of geography and climate, but also traffic congestion and significant gaps in the cycling network. Despite these weaknesses, there has been a gradual increase in the number of bicycle lanes and designated bike routes in the urban core. By 2013, HRM had 226 kilometres (140 mi) of AT facilities (131 kilometres of greenway and 96 kilometres of bike lanes).[19] The first protected cycling lane in Halifax opened in November 2015 as a pilot project. The lanes are separated from automotive traffic by a painted median and plastic bollards.[20]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Transport in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

• Transportation planning – Halifax Regional Municipality website