Rail to trail project gets OK

Halifax council spends $2.7 million to purchase Chester Spur Line, a rail corridor from Fairview out to the Lakeside Industrial Park.

by Tim Bousquet

Halifax council last week agreed to spend $2.7 million to purchase the Chester Spur Line, a rail corridor that winds its way from Fairview, around the Fairmount neighbourhood and out to the Lakeside Industrial Park.

click to enlarge

CN stopped running trains on the line some years ago, and last year put it up for sale with a $3 million asking price. The city asked for, and received, rights of first refusal, and began negotiations for the lower price. Funding comes from dedicated trail acquisition funds and from $750,000 over-dedicated to the Lacewood/BiHi interchange rebuilding. The city plans to ask the provincial Department of Health Promotion and Protection to also pony up $750,000 for the purchase.

As soon as the city acquires title to the line---by next summer at the latest---crews will build a crusher dust trail along the line, says Peter Bigelow, HRM's manager of real property. By the following summer, an asphalt multi-use trail will be constructed.

The asphalt will allow for wintertime plowing, says Bigelow. But day-to-day management of the trail will be placed in the hands of a community trail group.

The western end of the new trail will meet up with the existing Beeechville-Lakeside-Timberlea trail, an extension of the same rail line. The trail group that manages the BLT allows the use of ATVs, but Bigelow says all vehicles will be banned from the Chester Spur trail.

Chester Spur is the lynchpin to a complex city-wide trail system envisioned by trail advocates. At its Fairview terminus, it will hook up with two future trails---one leading north along the Bedford Basin, another swinging to the east, around Seaview Park and along the Halifax waterfront. The trail also will meet an extension of the existing Mainland Linear Trail through Clayton Park, and a proposed trail through Long Lake Park. And the western terminus meets the BLT.

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Cranky: "The cut to the southend isn't being used by anything except trains."

EXACTLY! The cut to the south end is used by trains... including the VIA passenger rail station. It could be one terminus of an overall commuter rail service including connections to BLIP, connections along the Bedford highway and beyond, connections in the north end of the peninsula via the old Kempt Road line as far as the Halifax Forum (with some land re-acquisition), connections along the north end of the waterfront as far as HMCS Dockyard...

Such plans would have to start somewhere. For example, with strategic acquisition of the necessary rights-of-way. Better to take possession of and preserve existing infrastructure before it's torn up.

Posted by goosnarrggh on October 24, 2009 at 6:28 PM | Report this comment

I agree with Jamesk, that we should be looking for commuter rail in this town. This line could tie into the line that runs down the railcut to the South End, and around the basin. The line could easily be extended to serve the new metropolis of Clayton Park West.

All and all, a bunch better option that some kind of hovercraft that only serves bedford.

Posted by DJRoscoe on September 28, 2009 at 4:46 PM | Report this comment

A trail system throughout the city sounds great, especially one bypassing some of the nastier hills to cycle up, such as Lacewood and St. Margaret's at Keating. There already are people using the abandoned tracks to get from the Bay road to Bayers, and I'd wager the commute from Joe Howe to BLIP will be twice as quick on a bike, than taking the 52.

I have three things on my wish list:

1. The city balances the construction between a line that can be switched to a light rail system cheaply if and when HRM is ready to support it, and that supports trail upkeep and maintenance.

2. Space is left for a cross country skiing track. Fredericton does a good job of this.

3. The trail is patrolled from time to time, both at night and day

Posted by Geoff on September 1, 2009 at 12:08 PM | Report this comment

I agree - congrats to the Coast for reporting this - There's a sign on Joe Howe beside the Superstore advertising an 80,000 SF piece for sale by CN, which I believe is part of the Chester Spur line - if so, it appears HRM isn't buying the whole line - anybody know?

Posted by ad hoc on August 23, 2009 at 9:08 PM | Report this comment

This sounds like a good idea. Although, I can see where the earlier poster not in favor of this is coming from.
In my perfect world trains would be the most used form of long distance transportation. Just think about this. Bombardier in Quebec make some of the fastest trains in the world and then sell them to Europe and Asia. Why don't we build an infrastructure like that in Canada where you can get from Halifax to Montreal, Ottawa or Toronto in an afternoon with out having to deal with airports. I would definately being taking that train several times a year.

Posted by Andrew Keith on August 21, 2009 at 4:09 PM | Report this comment

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