Commuter Cut

It takes too long to get to the urban core of Halifax from outside the peninsula. Many commuters report travel times of forty-five minutes to as much as an hour and a half, much too high for a city of less than 400,000 people.

There is a great opportunity to better use our south end port lands and the rail cut that accesses them.

Join the Conversation on…

This narrative has not benefited from any new engineering or financial study. It proposes a question to be properly addressed both by professionals doing the calculations and by interested citizens contributing ideas.

Comments of all kinds are welcome. Here are some questions on which we would particularly like to hear:

1. Do you commute from outside the peninsula? From where (first three digits of postal code would be great)? How long does it take? How much time might this idea save you?
2. Do you like the idea? Is it worth it for government to do the study?
3. If a decision was made to discontinue use of the land for a container terminal and rail yards, what kind of uses would you favor for the land that became available?
4. The Dartmouth downtown area has many of the same advantages as the urban core but it has not had its fair share of development. A contributing factor is the rail yards between it and the harbor which perform a necessary function in support of the refinery and auto port. Is there another way that support can be provided? Are there other obstacles to more active development of Dartmouth downtown?
5. Are there other ideas to reduce travel times, especially for commuters from the Dartmouth side?