The main part of Halifax is on a peninsula, and most of the problem traffic is from cars coming into the peninsula through a few choke points including over two harbour bridges and 3 main arteries on the isthmus of the peninsula largely from commuters and people entering central Halifax for typical central city visit reasons.
Dallas and Calgary do not have denser downtowns. They have taller office buildings, but at street level, Halifax is more closely knit. Here is a photo thread to show the actual situation. http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=183738
The airport is 30km from downtown, about 20 of which is through the forest. and 5 of which is through low density suburbia. I'm surprised (and delighted) they've even managed to start public transit bus service there this year.
If you look at what Ottawa is doing with the light rail its not a subway but there will be a tunnel and in some way its will be like a subway maybe this is the route Halifax should go.
There definitely isn't enough current ridership. The question is whether or not there's enough potential ridership. I'd like to think there is, but it's pretty tough to say.
A subway in HRM is pure fantasy. You have a urban , suburban area that rivals the size of Prince Edward Island containing a mere 390 some thousand people with a very small growth of population. The costs in the HRM would probably be much greater then many places simply because the entire county ,with some small exceptions is granite, slate and other rocks. The best course of action for the HRM is a combination of LRT and REAL BRT . There are abandoned CN rail beds all over the place. There are underused CN rail corridors in the HRM surely common sense would say getting a good relationship with CN would be best. CN will have a decrease in traffic coming out of Halifax with the creation of the Melford Container terminal in the Strait of Canso.
Halifax does not have the population for LRT/Subway?
In 1976: Edmonton's population: 460,000. Two years later, 1978 they opened their light rail system.
2011 HRM Census population: 413,000.
If they were to start now, it would take 5-10 years to build. By that time, the population would be close to what Edmonton had.
Designing it such that stations can be extended and only making certain sections underground would keep the costs manageable.
(If someone wants to tell me how to make a map, I would make one to show what I think)
Line 1
Here are my thoughts on stations:
- Yard located North of Akerley Blvd & Burnside, with station (Park and ride station)
Elevated/grade separated section:
- Dartmouth Crossing
- Micmac Mall
- Dartmouth Sportsplex
Tunneled section
under harbour
- HMC Dockyard
- Scotia Square
- Salter St & Hollis St
- Via Station
- Dresden Row/Spring Garden
- Spring Garden & Robie St (university and Hospital)
- Robie & Quinpool
- Mumford Rd Terminal
Elevated/grade separated:
- titus & Main Ave.
- Lacewood Terminal
Bayers Rd Terminal/Yard(Park and ride with direct exits from/to Highway 102)
1) Which would be better to cross the harbour? Another Bridge? No space.
2) Downtown Halifax Streets are too narrow and full of historic buildings. The streets would have to be converted into Transit Malls. Not a bad idea, but with the weather it receives, the city would have a tough time keeping the rails ice free. They have a hard enough time keeping the roads drivable.
I doubt it will ever happen, but there is my thoughts.
Why Grade Separated?
They have express buses that have to mix with traffic. LRT mixing with traffic would be a waste of money and time. It would not add more ridership.
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