Fast Ferry

[Halifax Hillbilly]

Metro Link buses won't service Spryfield, Clayton Park till 2012
STÉPHANE MASSINON

A delay in more Metro Link buses had some councillors wondering yesterday about the importance of the Bedford fast ferry.

After being told that new Metro Link bus services for Clayton Park, Spryfield and the Main Street corridor will now likely be delayed until 2012, many councillors said they did not want to wait even longer for the popular bus service.

Rockingham-Wentworth Coun. Debbie Hum was most annoyed by the development.

Every year, she said, council gets told the extra Metro Link buses won't come until a later and later date.

"Now we're at 2012?" she asked.

"I cannot at this time support the fast ferry," Hum concluded at the committee of the whole meeting.

The delay in the Metro Link buses is due to a lack of cash.

City staff want to be able to fund the purchase of more regular buses to make up the current shortage. Staff estimate the city needs 24 new regular buses to make up the gap.

That said, the Bedford fast ferry's $20-million price-tag looked appealing to councillors who want immediate money to fund more Metro Link buses.

Councillors then debated the idea of setting the Metro Link buses as a budget priority so that when next year's budget comes down, staff members know that Metro Link buses are important to councillors.

"Staff are looking at the budget now and they do need to have direction from council to come back with a budget that includes (Metro Link buses servicing) those corridors," said East Dartmouth-The Lakes Coun. Andrew Younger.

The city's top bureaucrat, chief administrative officer Dan English, urged council to slow down and wait until it fully understands the financial implications of saying Metro Link buses are now the top priority.

He also clarified that the money for the fast ferry - which amounts to $6 million from HRM - has been set aside separately to leverage more cash from the province and Ottawa.

"I don't think it's good right now for council to be setting priorities. Your priorities may change after you see what we present in terms of where we're going," English said

He was careful to say that it is council's role to set priorities, but that those priorities should be set after getting the whole picture - including financial implications - of saying Metro Link buses are more important than regular buses or other projects such as the fast ferry.

Councillors then voted to defer the debate.

[someone123]

Yeah, 2012 is ridiculous. I hope nobody tries to derail the ferry because if that happens it will just be delayed while new BRT routes still won't be close to being created. I also think the new ferry would make much more of a difference than BRT in Clayton Park (which is constrained by traffic and not really BRT anyway).

Like I said, I don't even think council should be debating specific transit projects since each councillor is simply in favour of whatever would be built in their district, not what is the most efficient use of funds for the transit system of the whole city.

Transportation issues in general tend to be horribly mishandled. They are just about the highest priority issues that the municipal government has to deal with and yet we hear more about cat bylaws and music concerts.

[kwajo]

and yet we hear more about cat bylaws and music concerts.

Clearly Halifax needs the kind of visionary leadership to solve these problems.
Idea #1? Gather together the excessive number of stray cats and use them to pull sleighs full of Clayton Park residents to their minimum-wage jobs.

See, that wasn't so hard.

[Halifax Hillbilly]

Originally Posted by someone123

Transportation issues in general tend to be horribly mishandled. They are just about the highest priority issues that the municipal government has to deal with and yet we hear more about cat bylaws and music concerts.

This is why most cities have a regional transportation authority.

[hfx_chris]

I shake my head at Council. It's difficult to even respond to this article. 2012? I mean yeah they need to order the new buses, and they do take some time to be delivered (six months to a year) but the 2012 figure is absolutely rediculous.

[Halifax Hillbilly]

Originally Posted by hfx_chris

I shake my head at Council. It's difficult to even respond to this article. 2012? I mean yeah they need to order the new buses, and they do take some time to be delivered (six months to a year) but the 2012 figure is absolutely rediculous.

It's pretty sad. 1 fast ferry = 20 million. 2 link routes x $15 million a piece. That's fifty million dollars. Not a large sum of money at all for what would be pretty significant improvements to transit and downtown accessibility.

Why can't anyone in coucil see that these types of infrastructure investments are necessary to support a functioning city. It's great to talk about a financial services boom but you have to move people around town if this kind of job growth is going to happen.

[Haliguy]

The city council has got the go in the next election. This is not acceptable.

[Wishblade]

Bedford-Halifax ferry tops transit funding list


Halifax is earmarking $13 million in federal public-transit funding for a highspeed ferry service.

Mayor Peter Kelly said council has agreed to spend all of the federal money allotted to the municipality on the HarbourLink ferry project connecting Bedford and Halifax.

"Harbourlink has been discussed by [council] for several years as a potential opportunity to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and get people out of their cars and into an alternative, environmentally friendly mode of transportation," he said in a release.

Council approved the HarbourLink project in principle in 2006.

The original idea was to have two 350-passenger vessels at a cost of $30 million. But after a staff review last year, the cost dropped to $20 million, with two smaller vessels carrying 250 people each.

The federal money for the Halifax Regional Municipality, announced Thursday, makes up the bulk of the funding promised to Nova Scotia.

Another $1 million will go to other transit authorities around the province, based mainly on ridership, the federal government said.

The money is to be put in a trust for use over the next two years.


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia...fastferry.html

[Dmajackson]

Ottawa hands over $13m for Bedford-Halifax commuter ferry

By MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE Staff Reporter
Thu. Mar 27 - 4:42 PM

The federal government Thursday dished out a major chunk of cash for a proposed commuter ferry to downtown Halifax from Bedford.

About $13 million has been earmarked for the high-speed ferry project, Transport Canada said in a release.

Another $1 million in federal funds is to go toward public transit improvements elsewhere in Nova Scotia.

The ferry money for metro comes about 2 1/2 years after trial runs on Halifax Harbour showed a fast ferry from Bedford to Halifax takes about 15 minutes in ideal conditions.

Halifax city hall’s target date for the service, to be operated by Metro Transit, was originally the fall of 2007 but the municipality has delayed the project, approved in principle by regional council, until money could be put aside.

Cost of the planned project is $30 million, Mayor Peter Kelly said. He said two, 250-passenger ferries are to be bought and a Bedford ferry terminal will need to be built.

Mr. Kelly said the city is hopeful the provincial government will contribute land, money or both to support the fast-ferry project.

“That $30-million expenditure won’t be done all at one time,” he said. “It will be phased in.”

Mr. Kelly said council has agreed to spend all the federal money allotted to the municipality for the ferry connecting Bedford and Halifax. He said the politicians made their decision behind closed doors last week.

The mayor acknowledged the in-camera decision didn’t fall under guidelines for council sessions done in secret – personnel issues, real estate matters or legal issues – but said the municipality didn’t want to step on any toes in Ottawa.

“We didn’t want to pre-empt the federal government,” Mr. Kelly told The Chronicle Herald. “We can’t approve something until they announce it.”

Source: Chronicle Herald

Hopefully this means there might be consruction on the waterfront soon.

On a little side note, construction has begun on a new Lawton's Professional Centre where the Bedford theatre used to be. This might not be really huge but it will move more Bedford ammenities to the watrfront helping on the path to eventually having a downtown (instead of just a "strip").

[Halifax Hillbilly]

Excellent news. I really think the fast ferry will be one of the most important transportation projects in HRM in a long time. Bedford is growing quickly and very poorly served by transit, and this service will bring many many new riders onto Metro Transit. I think this might prove to many that quality transit service can attract people out of their cars.

[terrynorthend]

I can't wait for this ferry..I don't own a car but love the shops in Bedford, so I will be one of the minority beneficiaries of this. A Haligonian who commutes to Bedford and back!

[Dmajackson]

Hopefully the community transit they're planning comes with this. Bedford has grown from a town of 6'000 in 1980ish to approximately 20'000 now (3X BIGGER in 25 years) and according to the district info on the Halifax website we now have more people then downtown, southend, westend, and lower sackville. I got a lil bored so i counted the buses. On a weekday Bfd gets 16 buses Dartmouth bound, 41 Halifax bound and 68 Sackville Bound. Those numbers may sound high but compared to other routes like #1 its nothing

[Halifax Hillbilly]

Originally Posted by Bedford_DJ

Hopefully the community transit they're planning comes with this. Bedford has grown from a town of 6'000 in 1980ish to approximately 20'000 now (3X BIGGER in 25 years) and according to the district info on the Halifax website we now have more people then downtown, southend, westend, and lower sackville. I got a lil bored so i counted the buses. On a weekday Bfd gets 16 buses Dartmouth bound, 41 Halifax bound and 68 Sackville Bound. Those numbers may sound high but compared to other routes like #1 its nothing

Some of the routes are awful too. I've taken the 80 to Bedford and it's an excruciating experience from downtown.

There's been talk of a shuttle service from Hammond's Plains with the fast ferry. I think with 20 000 people and a fairly large area some more shuttle routes are warranted but it will be interesting to see what happens. I bet they rely heavily on park and ride at the start, much like the Link has.

[kwajo]

Originally Posted by Bedford_DJ

Hopefully the community transit they're planning comes with this. Bedford has grown from a town of 6'000 in 1980ish to approximately 20'000 now (3X BIGGER in 25 years) and according to the district info on the Halifax website we now have more people then downtown, southend, westend, and lower sackville. I got a lil bored so i counted the buses. On a weekday Bfd gets 16 buses Dartmouth bound, 41 Halifax bound and 68 Sackville Bound. Those numbers may sound high but compared to other routes like #1 its nothing

I would have been impressed that you had that many bus routes to begin with. For comparison, the Kennebecasis Valley region outside Saint John grew from about 5000 in the early 80s to over 25000 now, and it only got bus service 6 months ago, and even then there are only about 10 trips a day in and out of the city.

I'm not saying that Bedford's doesn't need improvement, I'm just a bit jealous of what you already have.

[someone123]

The area with 20,000 is just the old Town of Bedford. It's definitely suburban but it's not that spread out. The whole Bedford-Sackville-Hammonds Plains-Fall River area is probably in the 80,000 people range.

Hammonds Plains, on the other hand, is in the same ballpark now and covers a much larger area. It has receives very little transit service. Tantallon/St. Margaret's, which is even further out, is in the same boat.

Shuttle routes are exactly what the ferry needs. Doing park and ride out in places like Hammonds Plains is easy because land is cheap there.

[terrynorthend]

Originally Posted by someone123

Shuttle routes are exactly what the ferry needs. Doing park and ride out in places like Hammonds Plains is easy because land is cheap there.

Do you mean Park and Ride to the Ferry? That sounds like too much trouble for the average commuter. How many people will want to drive to a P & R, wait and take a shuttle to the Bedford Ferry Terminal, then wait and take a boat downtown. Especially when the alternative is hopping on the 102 and zipping into town. I think that Park and Ride works best when people get a straight transit "ride" from the "park".

[Dmajackson]

kwajo i think one of the only reasons we have this much transit is Sackville is to the north of us and they need a lot more transit (lower income, more people, ect) Except for the 86 (the one trip bus) all buses go into Sackville.

[Dmajackson]

Originally Posted by terrynorthend

Do you mean Park and Ride to the Ferry? That sounds like too much trouble for the average commuter. How many people will want to drive to a P & R, wait and take a shuttle to the Bedford Ferry Terminal, then wait and take a boat downtown. Especially when the alternative is hopping on the 102 and zipping into town. I think that Park and Ride works best when people get a straight transit "ride" from the "park".

The problem is that we will need the Park 'n Ride to service all the people. There is not enough space on the waterfront for a large parking lot and we don't really want a sea of asphalt on our beautiful waterfront. They plan to provide Park 'n Ride up on Hammonds Plains with as many buses as possible to ship the people to the terminal. They also are planning the community transit and a south entrance (near Southgate) to provide a quick entrance where people can drop-off others. I think that the shuttles are necessairy though because Bedford is extremely hilly and a lot of people wouldnt walk/bike down because they would have to walk back up.

BTW going onto the 102 defenitely doesnt "zip" you into town, its actually one of the slower routes (Burnside is quicker).

[someone123]

Yeah, you can't really "zip" anywhere from Bedford at rush hour, which is a big argument for the ferry.

I don't think shuttles to the ferry are a big problem if they connect properly to the ferry terminal and are well-timed. Since the ferry terminal's being built from scratch it can be designed to accommodate the buses and dropoffs. They might be able to put some parking by the terminal but probably not enough to accommodate everybody. Maybe in the long term they could add structured parking but I doubt that's in the budget.

Virtually every household in Hammonds Plains has one or more cars so it's usually not a problem for somebody to get a short ride somewhere. I think a 5-10 min drive to a central shuttle location (e.g. Tantallon mall, somewhere around Glen Arbour, somewhere around Kingswood/Uplands Park) would work well.

[kwajo]

Originally Posted by Bedford_DJ

kwajo i think one of the only reasons we have this much transit is Sackville is to the north of us and they need a lot more transit (lower income, more people, ect) Except for the 86 (the one trip bus) all buses go into Sackville.

Yeah for a second there I had a lapse in my knowledge of Maritime geography, and completely forgot about all the large communities surrounding Bedford which would account for the large transit draw, etc.