Stadiums & Arenas of Canada, Part 3

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by NewIreland

People keep talking as if an airport stadium automatically means endless traffic and everyone driving out there, but one thing that gets overlooked is that the rail corridor is already right there. The CN main line runs through Windsor Junction and Wellington and passes close to the Aerotech area before reaching the airport. That means the proposed stadium site would actually come before the airport stop, not after it.

If a stadium were built around Aerotech Drive, you could realistically design a commuter rail line using the existing rail bed with stations at logical points instead of creating a brand new corridor from scratch.

A route could look something like:

Halifax (downtown rail station)
Rockingham / Bedford South
Bedford Commons area
Windsor Junction
Fall River
Wellington
Aerotech / Stadium district
Airport terminal
Enfield park and ride

That makes a lot of sense because the stadium stop would sit just off the existing corridor near Wellington, only a short spur or station connection away depending on the exact alignment, while the airport could remain the next stop further up the line.

This would not just be about football games either. It could function as real regional commuter rail serving Halifax commuters, Fall River and Enfield residents, airport passengers, and event traffic on game days or concerts.

The key point is that the rail bed already exists. Halifax would not be inventing a transit corridor from scratch. The corridor is there now. The opportunity would be upgrading it for passenger use, adding stations, and creating a short connection to serve Aerotech and eventually the airport.

That seems a lot more forward-thinking than pretending the only option is thousands of cars backed up on game day.

Commuter rail would be perfectly feasible in terms of geography and potential ridership and probably even cost (depending on who's doing the funding). But there have been talks of commuter rail multiple times and CN has not co-operated so that's pretty much a dead-end at this point. Plus, the route is likely to take longer for people on the Halifax side since it takes the long way by going around the harbour rather than going across like the road routes do. It's only a few extra km and avoiding traffic would easily outweigh the extra distance during peak periods. But I'm not sure there would be that much congestion during times when the games are held. I actually don't know what times of day and days of the week CFL games tend to happen but I can't see it being at times when most people were working or commuting.