Halifax Regional Municipality Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...

has a multi-modal transportation network.

Air

Halifax Stanfield International Airport Halifax Stanfield International Airport is a Canadian airport in Goffs, Nova Scotia, a rural community of the Halifax Regional Municipality. It serves the Halifax region, mainland Nova Scotia, and adjacent areas in the neighbouring Maritime p ...

, located in Goffs, is the municipality's airport. It is located approximately from

Downtown Halifax Downtown Halifax is the primary central business district of the Municipality of Halifax. Located on the central-eastern portion of the Halifax Peninsula, on Halifax Harbour. Along with Downtown Dartmouth, and other de facto central business di ...

Pedestrian

As of 2021, Halifax Regional Municipality has an extensive network of cycling lanes, multi-use paths, and

sidewalks A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English, South African English), or footpath (Irish English, Indian English, Australian English, New Zealand English) is a path along the side of a road. Usually constructed of concrete ...

. There are proposals for a Halifax Urban Greenway, which is envisioned to ultimately connect or construct trails around the entire perimeter of the

Bedford Basin Bedford Basin is a large enclosed bay, forming the northwestern end of Halifax Harbour on Canada's Atlantic coast. It is named in honour of John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford. Geography Geographically, the basin is situated entirely within th ...

and Halifax Harbour to link

Downtown Dartmouth Downtown Dartmouth is the main central business district of Dartmouth in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is part of the Capital District of the Province. Business and buildings Located in downtown Dartmouth are Alderney Gate which houses a b ...

and

. Some statistics:

Cycling

As of 2006, there are 338 bicycle-racks which can hold 800 bicycles located throughout the municipality. 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.

All Ages & Abilities Bikeway Network

The Halifax Regional Municipality is in the process of creating an All Ages & Abilities (''AAA'') cycling network within the Regional Centre. Once complete, the network will be approximately in length, and it will create a more-connected, safer AAA network throughout the Regional Centre.

Multi-use pathways

Within Halifax Regional Municipality, there are many multi-use pathways.

Walking

Built-up communities within the municipality have a better-established multi-use path--and--sidewalk connectivity, although there are still many sections that are not well connected. The less built-up the community, the likelihood of poor-connectivity increases. However, the municipality is working to improve bicycle-lane, multi-use path, sidewalk, and public transit services..

Public

Public transit within Halifax Regional Municipality is provided by

Halifax Transit Halifax Transit is a Canadian public transport service operating buses and ferries in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Founded as Metro Transit in March 1981, the agency runs two ferry routes, 66 conventional bus routes (including corridor, local, and expre ...

. The main modes of public transportation are transit buses as well as

ferries A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus. ...

that operate on Halifax Harbour between Dartmouth-and-Halifax.

Rural

Halifax Transit's '' MetroX'' provides transit-routes for rural communities throughout the Halifax Regional Municipality. The communities served are Fall River, Goffs (Halifax Stanfield International Airport), Hubley (Sheldrake Lake), Porters Lake, and Upper Tantallon. Most rural parts of Halifax Regional Municipality do not have public transit access, specifically the eastern, northern, and western areas. Rural areas are dependent upon privately operated bus-and-shuttle services.

Urban

Public transportation within the urban area of Halifax is more connected. Along with

buses A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

, Halifax Transit provides a ferry service alternative for transit users who wish to travel from Dartmouth-to-Halifax, and vice versa.

Proposed

Rapid ferry service

There have been proposed high-speed ferry routes to Larry Uteck, Mill Cove, and Shannon Park. The ferries would travel at speeds between , and would hold 150 passengers on a single-decked

catamaran A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...

. The ferries would run every 15 minutes during

peak hours A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English, Indian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice e ...

, and every 60 minutes during non-peak hours.

Commuter rail service

Former mayor, Peter Kelly, and several regional councillors have favoured instituting a

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

or a

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

network. The network would utilize abandoned-and-current railway lines to give more options to Haligonians. In August 2015, the municipality hired

CPCS Transcom Limited CPCS Transcom Limited (commonly known as CPCS) is an international infrastructure development firm specialising in private sector participation in transportation and power infrastructure, operations, investment, policy and regulation. An Ottawa, On ...

to prepare a study for the feasibility of commuter-rail in Halifax Regional Municipality. The study concluded that as of 2015, commuter-rail within Halifax Regional Municipality was not economically viable at that moment, but it was feasible.

Rail

Three important branch rail lines operated by CN were abandoned in the Halifax Regional Municipality in recent decades. One line ran along the Eastern Shore, one line went towards the North Shore, and another line went towards the

Annapolis Valley The Annapolis Valley is a valley and region in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is located in the western part of the Nova Scotia peninsula, formed by a Trough (geology), trough between two parallel mountain ranges along the shore of the B ...

. The rail corridors of all routes are still intact and used as recreational pathways, preserved by the provincial and municipal governments for possible reinstatement of rail service.

Commuter

Historically, the Halifax Peninsula had an extensive

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

transit system dating to the late 1800s. Operated by various private companies including the ''Halifax Street Railway Co.'', the ''Nova Scotia Power Co.'' (not the same company as the present electric utility), the ''Halifax Electric Tramway Co.'', the ''Nova Scotia Tramways and Power Co.'', and the '' Nova Scotia Light and Power Company, Limited'', the streetcar system was abandoned by the Nova Scotia Light and Power Company on 26th March 1949. Streetcars were replaced by an electric trolley coach system, however, the ''Halifax Transit Corporation'' replaced the last electric trolley coaches with conventional diesel buses on 1st January 1970.

Intercity

'' The Ocean'' is the sole

inter-city rail Inter-city rail services are Express train, express trains that run services that connect cities over longer distances than Commuter rail, commuter or Regional rail, regional trains. They include rail services that are neither short-distance co ...

service available, connecting Halifax with

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. The train runs three days per week, and takes approximately 22 hours to travel .

Freight

Halifax Regional Municipality is the eastern terminus of the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

(''CN''). CN provides direct freight service to

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, and

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

from either of the Halifax Port Authority's two container terminals, or the port's general cargo and specialized cargo piers. Canadian National Railway operates rail lines from Dartmouth, and Halifax.

Road

Rural

Within the rural areas of the municipality, many of the roads are two-laned 100-series highways, 200-series highways, 300-series highways, and trunk highways. The longest is Trunk 7 which runs from Bedford to

Antigonish Antigonish ( ; ) is a town in Antigonish County, Nova Scotia, Canada. The town is home to St. Francis Xavier University and the oldest continuous Highland games outside Scotland. It is approximately 160 kilometres (100 miles) northeast of Hal ...

Urban

The communities of Dartmouth-and-Halifax, Nova Scotia are linked by two suspension bridges. The Angus L. Macdonald Bridge, since 1955, and the A. Murray MacKay Bridge since 1970. On an average workday, both bridges carry over 100,000 vehicles.

Vehicular traffic congestion

Traffic congestion Traffic congestion is a condition in transport that is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. Traffic congestion on urban road networks has increased substantially since the 1950s, resulting in m ...

is increasing within Halifax as its population increases. The population of workers living in suburban areas, peri-urban areas, exurban areas, and within the urban area of Halifax itself, has recently increased at a much higher rate. Along with the municipality's natural geography-and-its road design, bottleneck points have emerged that cause delays. The concept of congestion tolling has been floated in the municipality from time to time. In 2011, a scholarly report studied the feasibility of implementing such a scheme.

Water

Halifax, like many municipalities on water, has several options for transport on the waterways within its boundaries. Some options are purely functional (Halifax-Dartmouth ferry service), and some options are designed for leisure/recreation (''Halifax Harbour Hopper'').

References

External links

Transportation planning
– Halifax Regional Municipality website {{Halifax Regional Municipality *

Air

Pedestrian

Cycling

All Ages & Abilities Bikeway Network

Multi-use pathways

Walking

Public

Rural

Urban

Proposed

Rapid ferry service

Commuter rail service

Rail

Commuter

Intercity

Freight

Road

Rural

Urban

Vehicular traffic congestion

Water

See also

References

External links