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Thursday, February 21, 2008

Chester Spur

Posted by Tim Bousquet on Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 8:00 AM

Commonwealth Games? “No one wants to hear about that anymore,” a city councillor told me Tuesday. Okay, I’ll set it aside for a bit, and let’s talk about abandoned railroad lines instead.

In June, CN announced that it was giving up the Chester Spur line, which stretches from Fairview through the Bayers Lake Industrial Park to Lakewood. No one stepped up to purchase the line, so CN is offering to sell the right-of-way to the city.

City staff held a couple of info meetings on the line last week, asking people what they thought. A small number of residents whose properties abut the line raised fears of marauding bands of hoodlums using the right-of-way to make a beeline to their dining room silver but, thankfully, most discussion was more thoughtful---splitting between those advocating for commuter rail and those wanting a pedestrian trail.

Light rail is a compelling prospect, but for this particular line it doesn’t make sense. The geography is all wrong: it doesn’t directly lead where people need to go, which is downtown, and it doesn’t travel through a high-enough population base to justify the capital expense. For now, in terms of transit serving the St. Margaret’s Bay Road corridor, express buses like the LINK system make far more sense than trains do.

Which brings us to a pedestrian trail. Such a trail would travel through a scenic landscape behind First and Second Chain Lakes that is now hard to access, and would connect to the truly wonderful BLT trail further west, which skirts along Governors and Cranberry Lakes on its way to Timberlea.

Trail advocates correctly point out that a new trail would encourage active recreational pursuits like hiking, biking, running and skiing, which in turn lead to more healthy lifestyles---a value in and of itself---and to lower health care costs. (This isn’t just conjecture; it’s been proven time and again.)

So what’s the rub? The $3.6 million asking price for the right-of-way.

Last week council was given four-colour architectural plans for another sensible pedestrian trail, this one along Bedford Basin, stretching from Hogan’s Point all the way to Bedford proper. Everyone congratulated the planners for the pretty drawings, and there was a general round of “Wow, we’re so wise,” until councillor Bob Harvey rudely interrupted the self-love fest with the observation that “there’s a whole library of pretty pictures” over at city hall---plans for pedestrian-friendly streetscapes, plans for hiking trails, plans for pools and rinks and courts and ball fields.

Plenty of plans. Just no money to realize them.

Let’s get back to what nobody wants to talk about: the Commonwealth Games. Remember the arguments? By spending $200 million of city money (and $2 billion or so in total) on world-class facilities for elite athletes from far away, we somehow or another would have ended up with an entire generation of local athletic superkids. And never mind the cost: with some creative budget juggling we could have afforded it all, without raising taxes.

Surely, if we had the money for the Commonwealth Games, we’ve got enough money for all the neighbourhood recreational facilities we could ever possibly need.

Alas, when it comes to creating a simple pedestrian trail, or a walking-friendly street or neighbourhood pool, there aren’t a few dozen well-connected business mucky-mucks who can make boatloads of money servicing bloated construction budgets.

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I heard on CBC Radio today that the March 4 in-camera session of regional council has decided to not purchase the now-abandoned Chester Spur.This is a mistake. A transportation corridor such as this in such a strategic location will never be made available again to the municipal government. Ever. Unless we see a road abandoned....Municipal and provincial politicians seem intent on spending taxpayer dollars on unsustainable road infrastructure. With record high oil prices and a brutal freeze-thaw cycle this winter spawning a record crop of potholes, how far do you think your tax dollars will go when our public works officials see the price for liquid asphalt this spring or summer? Not very far. What was possible to pave 10 years ago, we can now only afford 50% or less for the same amount of money.This brings us to rail. In this case, the rails are already there and they lead to two municipal-owned industrial parks. CN didn't want to own this line since the maintenance of it was costing them more money than the business they received in Lakeside and Bayers Lake industrial parks. But if HRM were to buy the rail line and charge CN a nominal fee to operate over it to access those customers, then that would be a few less trucks on the road - a good deal I would say, given that we can spend $4 million on a small handful of road projects in a week during construction season.Why not buy something more permanent that will reduce the number of trucks and at the same time start transporting goods using an environmentally friendly mode of transportation?Revolutionary eh? Plus trains are just plain cool.So HRM. Buy the tracks for $3.6 million and get CN to return rail service to our taxpayer-owned industrial parks.Then you can decide whether you want to put a trail in alongside the tracks.Check out this link for inspiration:http://www.proximityissues.ca/english/MaterialsContent/RailswithTrails.pdf

Posted by Ron on March 7, 2008 at 4:00 AM | Report this comment

Ron-- my take on the council's action is that they're in a negotiation stage with CN: council rejected CN's initial offer, but asked for a right of first refusal should any other offer come around over the next three months. The three months gives the city enough time to get through its annual budgeting process, during which they can go through the capital budgets and try to find the money to purchase the Chester Spur Line.This strikes me as the right course of action: we want to negotiate the lowest price possible, not just pony up what CN says the line is worth, and if we do purchase it, we want to do in the context of Halifax's long-term capital budgeting process.The rail corridor isn't going anywhere, so a few months time to do this right is entirely justified.At least, that's what I hope is going on here. They did it all in closed session, so I have no idea if the majority on council supports the purchase. They have, however, left the door open for it.

Posted by Tim Bousquet on March 7, 2008 at 4:00 AM | Report this comment