By Andrew Macdonald
The Port of Halifax in recent years has spent $16.85 million on its CN Rail Cut solution to remove transfer trucks from downtown Halifax streets. The overall project is pegged at $73.26M and includes funds from Ottawa.
Last year, the project saw the port spend $724,000 on the railway solution to shunt cargo from the Southend Terminal to Fairview Terminal, using rail cars to carry boxes on the CN Rail Cut to Fairview where they are loaded onto trucks,eliminating the use of downtown streets.
In the meantime, some downtown residents have noticed that there are fewer trucks now on downtown streets, because the PSA Atlantic Hub terminal adjacent to Point Pleasant Park is sending smaller ships with localized cargo for the Atlantic Canada market to Fairview Cove, where the cargo is loaded onto trucks, eliminating the need for trucks to travel on Lower Water and Hollis streets.
I spoke to Paul MacIsaac, senior VP with the Port of Halifax, about those two projects. Port spokesperson Lori MacLean joined in on the conversation.
I asked MacIsaac for an update on the truck rail solution, and he told The Macdonald Notebook “the whole project has to be built out before it can be used.”
The project means new rail tracks to be placed at the Southend terminal, deploying new equipment at the terminal to handle the cargo-to-rail solution, and a new marshaling yard at Fairview Cove to see cargo loaded onto trucks for delivery of that cargo in Atlantic Canada, mostly done via trucks.
“That project is moving along very, very well. It has taken a considerable amount of planning and in 2023, we had to reconfigure the terminal at PSA Atlantic Hub (adjacent Point Pleasant Park), to allow for the rail track. That part of the project is pretty well completed,” adds MacIsaac.
The next phase is for Fairview to accommodate more truck traffic, which is just seeing designs being completed, and the construction of rail tracks is set to be completed by 2026.
“One of the things we are quite cognizant of is that we are ‘one port city’, and everything we do, we do in conjunction with our neighbours and community, so we want to make sure that the port is sustainable for the long term and to do that we have to work with our city,” says MacIsaac.
A transfer truck passes by Queen’s Marque, an office, retail/restaurant and apartment complex in downtown Halifax, which opened in 2021. The Notebook photo
Port spokesperson Lori MacLean says there are fewer trucks on the downtown Halifax streets now because the Southend container terminal operator, PSA Halifax, which also manages Fairview Cove terminal, last year began directing smaller container vessels to load and unload cargo at Fairview. Cargo now does not have to be carried by trucks from the Southend terminal.
“There are still trucks, but perhaps others have noticed there are not quite as many of late,” adds MacLean.
Outside of the CN Rail Cut solution, MacLean says the port is also “working with our partners to reduce port-related truck traffic in downtown Halifax.”
In 2023, terminal operator PSA Halifax started moving some of the smaller vessels to Fairview Cove that are associated with local/regional truck moves, which also accommodates the larger vessels at the South End terminal (Atlantic Hub) that are discharging containers directly to the U.S. Midwest, Ontario and Quebec by rail, says MacLean.
“Generally, the larger vessels berthed at PSA Atlantic Hub carry rail-based cargo destined for inland markets, and the smaller ships berthed at Fairview Cove carry more local cargo, so that shift is having a positive impact reducing truck transits in the urban core,” adds MacLean.
