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Originally Posted by fenwick16
I would love to see an inland terminal but I wonder how it would function. CN can't be counted on to provide cost effective service to an inland terminal when they would be making truck delivery more efficient. Trucking from an inland terminal to places within a day's transit would be less efficient fuel and cost wise than by train, but quicker. I think many companies who rely on quick service, would pay extra if they can get truck delivery within a day from an inland NS terminal than rely on train service. So an inland terminal would be good for the port of Halifax but bad for CN due to more truck competition.
I remember the Halifax waterfront in the 1970's, although it was an interesting place it was somewhat dirty and it lacked the public assess that exists today with the boardwalk. Halifax certainly dodged a bullet when it stopped the Harbour Drive project. Today it is a walkabout city with a great waterfront that wouldn't exist with an expressway cutting through the city. Anyone who travels to Toronto knows what an eyesore the Gardiner Expressway is.
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I'm curious on how an inland terminal would work as well. I'm actually thinking of the configuration which would allow the containers to be moved to and from Halterm by rail to a depot where they would be distributed to and from trucks as required. Of all the potential options, it seems like the best way to get container traffic out of the city, but you're right in that it would add an extra step in getting containers to the trucks. I'm not sure that it would result in extra mileage for the trucks, though, as I don't imagine too many containers are loaded or unloaded downtown. I would think most of that would link up quite well with a depot near a major highway to bring the containers to and from other parts of Nova Scotia, NB, PEI, and NL.