HALIFAX, (April 27, 2004) — Officials from the city of Halifax are proposing a study to determine the practicality of shifting container freight in the city’s south end from truck to rail, the Halifax Daily News reports.

The city’s transportation planner Dave McCusker said in a report that the nearly 600 trucks a day that haul containers to and from the south-end terminal are creating logistical and traffic problems for the downtown core. He added that the trucks are noisy and damage the roadway.

The solution, he says, would be to put cargo containers on tracks to an inland multi-modal terminal off the peninsula, which would in-turn also free up valuable waterfront space at the Halifax port. There, the containers would be loaded onto trucks.

However, the region’s shipping community is concerned with the plan, as the transportation cost becomes more expensive every time a container is handled. But McCusker said the new system will offset handling costs by eliminating time containers are held up in downtown traffic.

The $160,000 study would examine the best location for the new terminal, its economic feasibility, and possible operators, as well as quantifying possible benefits such as reductions in pollution, noise and pavement damage.

— from The Daily News (Halifax)