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  #1  
Old Posted Sep 4, 2011, 4:13 AM
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Windsor & Hantsport Railway

According to the suburban grapevine the Windsor and Hantsport Railway Company has lost its last customer (Fundy Gypsum) and now has no trains running on its 90kms of track. The company owns the tracks running from Windsor Junction through Mount Uniacke, Windsor, and Hantsport to New Minas.

With this in mind the reasoning for maintaining the railway is questionable. This leads me to think of possible re-uses for the mainline.

What do you think should be done with the potentially abandoned railway?

A) It should be maintained and freight users should be actively searched for
B) It should be abandoned and used for alternative transportation uses (ie rail-trail, bus route)
C) It should be maintained and used for a new passenger service from the Valley to HRM.
D) A combination of the above.
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  #2  
Old Posted Sep 4, 2011, 4:36 AM
pblaauw pblaauw is offline
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A is unlikely.

B or C would be good ideas, but not together, thus making D irrelevant, from my POV.
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  #3  
Old Posted Sep 4, 2011, 10:17 AM
halifaxboyns halifaxboyns is offline
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Don't turn the rail over to a nature group to become a trail - that was the biggest mistake that was made with the rail spur down the south shore and out Tantallon way. That spur could've been upgraded, expanded or changed to create a wonderful urban rail line as part of a regional rail way system that could've included Tantallon, Bedford and Lower Sackville via the WHR spur.

The biggest mistake cities are making is just letting these lines be closed and turned into trails when transportation bottlenecks remain. This is a great alternative to building more roads and when you are done with getting the rails setup for something more high speed, you can then look at the ROW that's left over and put in a trail if there is room.
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  #4  
Old Posted Sep 4, 2011, 12:46 PM
worldlyhaligonian worldlyhaligonian is offline
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Originally Posted by halifaxboyns View Post
Don't turn the rail over to a nature group to become a trail - that was the biggest mistake that was made with the rail spur down the south shore and out Tantallon way. That spur could've been upgraded, expanded or changed to create a wonderful urban rail line as part of a regional rail way system that could've included Tantallon, Bedford and Lower Sackville via the WHR spur.

The biggest mistake cities are making is just letting these lines be closed and turned into trails when transportation bottlenecks remain. This is a great alternative to building more roads and when you are done with getting the rails setup for something more high speed, you can then look at the ROW that's left over and put in a trail if there is room.
But we need to give away our land and infrastructure to special interest groups because they know what's best compared to us morally inferior folks.

The railway tracks in Halifax should be pulled up too and we should turn them into green space... because there is a serious lack of greenspace in HRM. In fact, we should demolish the city and just turn it all into trails and greenspace.
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  #5  
Old Posted Sep 4, 2011, 12:49 PM
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I couldn't agree more with halifaxboy.... We need to stop with the rails to trails already... Once they are converted to a walking trail, there would be public outcry if you ever tried to convert back to a railway, and building a new ROW would be prohibitively expensive. I don't know what the future might hold for this rail line but I really hope it's not another walking trail.
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  #6  
Old Posted Sep 4, 2011, 1:06 PM
worldlyhaligonian worldlyhaligonian is offline
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My above post was sarcasm... but if anybody reads the letter to the editor in the Halifax magazine included with the sunday paper... its not far off peoples actual opinon.
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  #7  
Old Posted Sep 4, 2011, 3:07 PM
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haligonia haligonia is offline
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The letter that was published made me laugh:

Our downtown is beyond repair, why try to fix it? More people will only mean more traffic heading downtown. Instead, let's demolish all of our heratige buildings and turn them into greenspace. That'll be much better.

I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea.

Last edited by haligonia; Sep 4, 2011 at 5:11 PM.
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  #8  
Old Posted Sep 4, 2011, 5:24 PM
worldlyhaligonian worldlyhaligonian is offline
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Originally Posted by haligonia View Post
The letter that was published made me laugh:

Our downtown is beyond repair, why try to fix it? More people will only mean more traffic heading downtown. Instead, let's demolish all of our heratige buildings and turn them into greenspace. That'll be much better.

I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea.
That's about exactly what they wrote.

Also, the part about "lets expand our city horizontally, not vertically" basically implies this guy is in favour of sprawl.

These type of opinions / people are potentially more scary than the heritage posse.
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  #9  
Old Posted Sep 4, 2011, 5:53 PM
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The last thing they should do is convert the line to a walking trail.

Railway ROW's are a precious resource. The gasoline era will be coming to a close within the next 50 years. While I do not predict the demise of personal motor vehicles, we will need more transportation options into the future as the cost of personal transport skyrockets.

The ROW should absolutely be preserved to be included into the greater HRM commuter rail system which will be coming someday, and hopefully in the not too far distant future.
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  #10  
Old Posted Sep 4, 2011, 5:53 PM
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My answer is C
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  #11  
Old Posted Sep 4, 2011, 6:36 PM
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Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian View Post
But we need to give away our land and infrastructure to special interest groups because they know what's best compared to us morally inferior folks.

The railway tracks in Halifax should be pulled up too and we should turn them into green space... because there is a serious lack of greenspace in HRM. In fact, we should demolish the city and just turn it all into trails and greenspace.
I believe there are far more interest groups in non-environmental fields to which you could sell-out Halifax. Let's try to be moderate here.

I completely agree with trying to find a business solution to this railway; especially if Halifax profits from this. The question would be how the rural areas would be affected. I guess this is an arguement about numbers. Can we make money off of this? If not you'd be surprised how greenspace can raise residential property value. In a high-demand residential area, greenspace further attracts high-rise development.
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  #12  
Old Posted Sep 5, 2011, 12:15 AM
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I know nothing about all of this, but how valuable is such a right of way for future rail service? Looking at Portland, OR, their rail lines seem to run along highways. I don't know the Windsor and Hantsport Railway at all, but looking at the one to Tantallon, wouldn't a routing along the 103 be much more realistic (if there ever will be a railway that way, which I seriously doubt)? The rail trail is much narrower than the median of the highway, and it crosses so many roads and driveways in Timberlea that it's hard to imagine it could be used for rail service even if no trail had been built. The situation is different for the portion of the trail that runs within the city of course.
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  #13  
Old Posted Sep 5, 2011, 1:15 AM
halifaxboyns halifaxboyns is offline
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Originally Posted by ScovaNotian View Post
I know nothing about all of this, but how valuable is such a right of way for future rail service? Looking at Portland, OR, their rail lines seem to run along highways. I don't know the Windsor and Hantsport Railway at all, but looking at the one to Tantallon, wouldn't a routing along the 103 be much more realistic (if there ever will be a railway that way, which I seriously doubt)? The rail trail is much narrower than the median of the highway, and it crosses so many roads and driveways in Timberlea that it's hard to imagine it could be used for rail service even if no trail had been built. The situation is different for the portion of the trail that runs within the city of course.
The tantallon line weaves through many areas and if memory serves ends up near Sir John A. So there would be a need to have to acquire some crown land to get the 'line' over to the Tantallon Shopping Centre since this was the end point of the existing bus routes.

But with all transportation infrastructure, things can be overcome if you are willing to spend the money to do it.
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  #14  
Old Posted Sep 5, 2011, 1:46 PM
worldlyhaligonian worldlyhaligonian is offline
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I believe there are far more interest groups in non-environmental fields to which you could sell-out Halifax. Let's try to be moderate here.

I completely agree with trying to find a business solution to this railway; especially if Halifax profits from this. The question would be how the rural areas would be affected. I guess this is an arguement about numbers. Can we make money off of this? If not you'd be surprised how greenspace can raise residential property value. In a high-demand residential area, greenspace further attracts high-rise development.
For sure... for the business case point, I totally agree. In fact, this sort of transportation strategy would likely work best from the core outward, not the other way around.

The problem is that, say for example, if the tracks that lead downtown could possibly be hijacked by a group who wouldn't want the rail cut to be used for transportation purposes.

The other issue is that anti-development groups may actually protest high-rise development near greenspace that they may have contributed to creating. Many of these groups don't even want to allow recreational/arts facilities on this land. (not even buildings specifically)

Its a bit of a give them an inch, they take a mile situation. Supposedly the developers do things underhandedly, but I will put money on groups speaking out against any form of development on the QEH site after it has been in use as an urban farm for a number of years. Additionally, the sands at salter site... although an improvement over a parking lot, may also face opposition when a new development is eventually proposed.
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  #15  
Old Posted Sep 5, 2011, 10:44 PM
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Caught a few glimpses of this track going to halifax and it looked pretty rusted out tbh. The best thing is to leave it abandoned until something else comes up. NO WALKING TRAIL.
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  #16  
Old Posted Sep 6, 2011, 6:42 PM
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The trouble is, if I'm not mistaken, the company that owns the rail line is required by law to either maintain it or rip it up. Not sure if that applies to the whole line, or just crossings and bridges, but either way if the company has no intention of using the line anymore, someone will have to buy it and maintain it or else the company will likely rip it up.

However, I don't think just being rusted is a big deal. I'm pretty sure tracks get rusty pretty quickly. However I think if the rails are not used they corrode faster, because water sits in the imperfections in the rail if nothing is grinding the rail.

I think the province should buy it. If CN would actually play ball and let the city use their tracks from Windsor Junction to Halifax, a commuter service could easily be implemented at least from Halifax to Beaverbank, maybe even to Windsor if there is enough traffic.

Regardless of what happens to the actual rails, hopefully the ROW will be maintained and not turned into a walking trail that will never be able to be recaptured for rail use. Even if the rails are ripped up and it is not officially turned into a walking trail, people will start using it that way and they will automatically feel entitled to it if anyone ever tries to lay tracks again.
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  #17  
Old Posted Feb 6, 2013, 7:59 AM
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CN seeks Windsor Junction line operator
February 5, 2013 - 5:26pm BY BILL POWER BUSINESS REPORTER

Quote:
If anybody wants to fire up the Windsor Junction rail line, they have until April 8 to alert the Canadian National Railway Co.

The railway published a notice of discontinuance Tuesday that raises questions about the future of the rail corridor between Windsor Junction, in Halifax Regional Municipality, and a location near the Town of Windsor.

The announcement regarding the rail link had some officials in Windsor and Wolfville scratching their heads about the implications.

...
(bpower@herald.ca)

Read More: thechronicleherald.ca
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  #18  
Old Posted Feb 6, 2013, 4:05 PM
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A Million a Mile for new rail.

We have to keep these old rail ROW from becoming the dreaded walking trail. Even if there is no rail traffic, the ROW itself has great value. Laying new track on an existing base would have to be orders of magnitude cheaper than starting from scratch.

The ROW down through St. Margrets bay has been lost. It will never be back. A shame.

If we ever want to have a decent rail service (commuter or passenger) in this province, keeping ROWs as ROWs is essential.
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  #19  
Old Posted Feb 18, 2013, 7:12 PM
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r

I think the estimate in 2007 was 12.1mil to do the renovations that would have allowed the bridge over the Avon River to remain serviceable.

This would have allowed rail service to continue to New Minas and it's local industries, and no doubt traffic would be continuing.

Another 13 miles of track after Kentville would connect it to the newly expanded and invested in, Michelin Plant in Waterville.

This line desperately needs to be saved, especially if we even want to see a decent commuter rail system for HRM.
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  #20  
Old Posted Apr 11, 2013, 2:20 PM
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Thomas eyed as rail line rescuer
April 10, 2013 - 8:32pm BY BILL POWER BUSINESS REPORTER

Thomas the Tank Engine was being held out Wednesday as a potential saviour of the Windsor Junction rail line near Halifax.

Read more here: http://thechronicleherald.ca/busines...l-line-rescuer
This is great that the Windsor & Hantsport Railway Co. wants to buy or lease the track for tourist and other commercial uses. This should help maintain the track for future commuter rail.
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