Quote:
Originally Posted by MonctonRad
Of course, there are many variables at play, but if Halifax or NS made life difficult for CNR (for example by restricting the times of day they could run freight trains out of the container ports), this would all factor into the equation.
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This type of talk is very speculative.
The details for commuter rail were covered by a non-disclosure agreement so we don't know if it would have required big concessions from CN or if they were simply being hard to deal with.
I think most people understand that it is not worth sacrificing rail service to billion dollar port facilities to run a few commuter rail trains a day. But we have no idea that this was the real trade-off or if alternatives were fully explored. Given how HRM and CN work, I don't have a hard time believing that there was limited ambition relative to the level of bureaucratic stonewalling. HRM staff barely even wanted to consider commuter rail when council asked them to.
Halifax needs a single authority that maintains a clear long-term plan for all forms of transportation in the region (regional council is not sufficient), and the federal government needs to regulate the railways better to at least ensure a bit more transparency and that they make minimal effort to support as many uses as possible on the infrastructure they have inherited from the public.