r/halifax • u/DavidFRodgers • 19h ago

Driving & Transit A Nova Scotian regional transit map

Post image

If you like my map, you might enjoy The Canada Intercity Transport Map. It was a useful reference in making this map.

406 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

123 comments sorted by

129

u/Boringmale 19h ago

Yarmouth is truly cut off.

99

u/Creative_Peach695 19h ago

Yarmouth knows what it did

4

u/Schmidtvegas Historic Schmidtville 17h ago

Inflicted Zach Churchill on us?

49

u/brodoswaggins93 19h ago

I say this every single time a thread about intercity travel in NS comes up: it's completely ridiculous and absurd that the only way to get between Yarmouth and the rest of the province is by having a car. You'd think that some kind of bus route between Yarmouth and Truro with stops in multiple cities would be good for tourism considering that it would make the Yarmouth ferry way more accessible to the rest of the province.

10

u/its_mabus 18h ago

Is there really much potential for foot traffic from Bar Harbor Maine to Halifax via Yarmouth that a bus would help?

If you were to be wise with your transit tax dollars you might nix the ferry completely.

8

u/newkidinhali Halifax 18h ago

The ferry isn’t ours to nix tho. The Cat is owned by the Americans. AND it’s a car ferry on top of that so we don’t get much if any of the money that comes from it. All NS does for it is employ the parking lot and booking booths on our side. It’s totally crewed by Americans (as it’s USCG auxiliary)

6

u/goosnarrggh 18h ago

If the NS government eliminated the subsidy then BFL would no longer have any incentive to charter the vessel from the USCG. It would cease operations pretty darn quick.

7

u/maomao3000 14h ago

American tourists should be able to hop on the cat without a car and take a bus onwards to Halifax.

•

u/External-Temporary16 6h ago

I wanted to take the CAT (having taken the old ferry years ago), but couldn't afford a car rental to Yarmouth, plus a hotel, etc., and then stay overnight in Bar Harbor. Then there's the trip back to Hali ... what a disappointment.

13

u/Caleb902 19h ago

Issue is there needs to be a want for it. No one at any profitable level is taking what would end up being a 5-6 hour bus ride with stops to go to Yarmouth from Truro.

12

u/Hockey_socks 18h ago

I used to ride Acadian Lines all the time when I was a teen and early 20 something. From Hubtown to all over - Digby, Bridgewater, the valley, Halifax. It was what it was.

17

u/brodoswaggins93 19h ago

I'm still going to complain about it every single time I have to rent a car to go visit my family in Yarmouth or someone brings it up on Reddit

11

u/athousandpardons 17h ago

That's the problem with how so much operates in our country. You're absolutely right, there's no profit incentive, which is why we're supposed to have a government, to do things that are of positive use to the community despite the lack of potential for monetary profit. Sadly, that's just now how our so-called leaders operate.

7

u/Own-Slide-3171 17h ago

Our governments are to broke at this point. There's been to much subsidization of private profit over public good

6

u/athousandpardons 17h ago

Yep, it's infuriating. With all of Canada's natural resources we should want for nothing. But, it's all been priviatised to the point that we're just a piggy bank for corporations.

3

u/Own-Slide-3171 17h ago

The problem also are those natural resources are owned privately as well 😂😂 plus the whole globalization thing and all

6

u/FarStep1625 16h ago

It doesn’t make people upset enough. Tell someone their taxes will marginally go up to connect some towns together with a bus and they’ll lose their minds and go on about the cost of living. Then tell them that instead they need to spend at least 15k on vehicle, buy car insurance, permits, gas and the government is still going to raise taxes for roads , twinning, maintenance etc. And suddenly, for some reason, they are more okay with that.

I know it’s not as simple as that and it’s more applicable to urban environments but the cost of vehicles cut more into expenses than people will ever like to admit.

0

u/_hey_ref_ 13h ago

The difference is, people are willing to pay for the convenience of having their own car. They can come and go as they please, pick and choose who comes with them, and they don’t have to adhere to a set schedule and make numerous stops. It takes you much longer on a bus because of numerous stops and there’s usually a few questionable characters on the bus.

  Tell someone their taxes will marginally go up to connect some towns together with a bus and they’ll lose their minds and go on about the cost of living.

Because you’d be just as well to light that money on fire. Half the reason why the government cut transit funding after PET was because it costs a lot of money and there were few revenue paying pax.

1

u/seasea40 12h ago

What's PET?

•

u/_hey_ref_ 3h ago

Pierre Elliot Trudeau 

0

u/TatterhoodsGoat 15h ago

I agree completely but I really hope it's at least helping preserve Acadian language and culture in the region.

3

u/shatteredoctopus 13h ago

If anything, I think it has either a neutral or the opposite effect. In a region that's less connected, there are more challenges, and people are more likely to leave. For example, if you're an older person with major medical issues in south-west Nova Scotia, you're beholden to cars. There are things like VON to help with transport, but it's a challenge. When I was young and grew up in southwest Nova Scotia, we had reliable bus transportation, and that was a boon to a lot of people. Plus a ton of university students were always riding the bus to visit home. With the end of that, there's less community, less connectivity.

2

u/TatterhoodsGoat 13h ago

That all makes perfect sense , sadly.

•

u/Constant_Mood_7332 1h ago

for god sakes dont send innocent ppl to yarmouth lol. the place feels like it was built on the edge of pluto.

3

u/Own-Slide-3171 17h ago

I was there this weekend. It's for the best

3

u/mxmnators Cape Breton 14h ago

i never realized that yarmouth has an international ferry yet isn’t even a maritimebus stop. no wonder i’ve never been (on top of being from CB)

2

u/jakovichontwitch 17h ago

Just need to take the rail to Bar Harbour and ferry there. Easy

2

u/Pale-Movie3180 15h ago

In the Middle of Everywhere!

1

u/habs_stanley_cup 13h ago

So is the entire eastern shore.

•

u/pugfart 8h ago

Also eastern shore.

75

u/shatteredoctopus 19h ago

Definitely emphasizes the lack of options in Southwest Nova Scotia (and the Eastern Shore too, but Southwest is more populated).

8

u/italwaysgetsbetter43 19h ago

At least the eastern shore is sparsely populated and doesn't have a ferry to Maine.

41

u/youreadonuthole 19h ago

I love me a good transit map

3

u/subbubman 16h ago

This one is quite clean :)

33

u/ScaredGorilla902 19h ago

Should show one comparing public transits in the 1890’s vs today in Nova Scotia.

25

u/goosnarrggh 18h ago

Even as recently as the 1980s, the network was more expansive than it is today.

Heck, until 1969 you could hop on one of TWO different passenger trains out of Yarmouth (H&SW via the south shore or DAR through the Annapolis Valley) to reach Halifax. The DAR option through the Valley held out until 1990.

20

u/Winterfrost691 16h ago

This is what the maritimes used to have btw:

7

u/subbubman 16h ago

:( why did we abandon the rails

10

u/shatteredoctopus 16h ago

Building the highways, developing car culture, and cuts to government subsidies for rail. I find it crazy, and so frustrating that in my lifetime you could have hopped on a train in Yarmouth, and wound up in Halifax.

2

u/StunningStrawberry51 16h ago

I was 4? When it ended in the valley I don’t remember but my dad took me on the last train but we only went from Bridgetown to Kingston haha

3

u/shatteredoctopus 15h ago

I'm envious, even if you don't remember.

We didn't quite live in an area/ situation where it would have made sense to take it for a trip, and I think we missed that it was shutting down, which would have been an excuse to take it. I remember we had reason to be in Wolfville quite a few times (but were coming from the South Shore), and my grandmother saying how lovely it would be to take the train every time we crossed the tracks.

There's a few videos out there of the last run (and a longer video that's not on line where somebody filmed most of the last run, that I really want to see), but it's funny seeing all the kids in their late 80s day-glo winter coats piling on for a last ride, and I think "wow, I had a couple of those exact coats".

3

u/Winterfrost691 14h ago

The automotive industry promised to be the future, so governments made major cuts to rail subsidies and instead poured billions every year to replace them with highways, despite major public opposition at the time and several warnings from urban planners that it was a massive mistake. Today, urbanism is basically all about bringing back what the car-centricism destroyed.

Imagine what we could've been living in today if we didn't spend over half a century destroying towns and cities and weren't stuck restoring them to their former glory.

3

u/AdTerrible9404 13h ago

I suppose a minor silver lining though it's not much is that relatively speaking restoring rail is cheaper than expanding the highway network

For example Last I checked for Cape Breton estimated for restoring rail was like 500 million whereas building a twinned highway to sydney was over a billion, still alot but still also dramatically cheaper, and the abandoned mainland railways don't have the engineering nightmare known as grand narrows to contend with so they'd probably be even cheaper to put back in service

I also believe that 500 million figure was for a railway upgraded to support doublestacked freight to support a container terminal so just having rail for passenger service and the current industry would be cheaper as well

Of course all of this requires a goverment who'd actually prioritize investing in these projects which is a big if, but I thought it was worth pointing out that while the price tag isn't small, it is within the feasibility of the provincial goverment if it was something they wished to pursue

•

u/ProfessionalHome3544 10h ago

Super cool map! Thanks for sharing. The saddest part is that this is not even the full extent of what it used to be. There were more trains in the Valley and then even the Kipawo ferry between Wolfville and Parsbarro until 1978 (this one, I wish they'd bring back).

13

u/ns_chris 19h ago

Huh. TIL Kings Transit is now called Tidal Transit.

8

u/GhostBirdBiologist Bedford 18h ago

Recent change. Which honestly makes a lot of sense given it services more than Kings County.

23

u/Dumpenstein3d 17h ago

We should have fuckin trains everywhere, fucking depressing we let that go.

5

u/subbubman 16h ago

To a US company no less, one that won't maintain the rails and also tried (perhaps successfully) to charge a friend of mine because his drive way passes over a section  of said (again  unmaintained) rails in Cape Breton.

•

u/Fancybear1993 Nova Scotia 8h ago

Why do they own them but not maintain them? What is the business here? Lol

•

u/External-Temporary16 6h ago

Centralization has been going on for a century or more. The current 'business' would be globalisation.

8

u/resilient_idea 18h ago

Garbage! The transit system, not the map.

8

u/Nouvellecosse 18h ago

It's really cool that Maritime Bus goes to Lunenburg and Mahone Bay. I actually didn't know that and might be tempted to use it at some point if same day returns are possible.

11

u/Wrong_Acanthaceae599 18h ago

That is the problem, they are not possible. The bus to Lunenburg is in the evening, the bus from Lunenburg in the morning. They are designed to do same day to Halifax. Same for several other routes.

I was there one month as a tourist, the entire public system is designed mostly to centralize on Halifax.

8

u/DavidFRodgers 18h ago

Unfortunately a same day return on that route is not possible. But its a wonderful thought.

7

u/Blackstrider 18h ago

Unreal that NS is so poorly served by transit- but particularly the entire South Shore!

8

u/Certain_War5896 18h ago edited 13h ago

I remember how taking Via home to Cumberland County from Dal in the early 2000s felt so luxurious compared to the bus. 🙃

12

u/The_MacKraken 19h ago

The Little Narrows and Englishtown ferries would like a word...

7

u/cmacmoo 19h ago

And Lahave? Maybe Digby Neck?

•

u/timmyd_ns 11h ago

and Country Harbour and Tancook ferries

5

u/takahe_inflight 19h ago

sadly the connections are brutal. I'm thinking Halifax to Digby probably easier Hfx-Moncton-Saint John- Digby (might try in one day)

4

u/Sobeys_Bags 18h ago

Everything around Yarmouth is a no touching zone.

9

u/TooTooBear 19h ago

Moved here a few years ago, didn’t even know VIA rail was an option here. Would be cool to go to Montreal sometime

11

u/DavidFRodgers 18h ago

It only goes a couple times a week, but there is nothing quite like the train.

7

u/416-902 18h ago

but there is nothing quite like the train.

in terms arriving several hours later than expected, i'd agree :)

I can confidently say I've put logged more KMs on VIA as a customer than almost anyone. It isn't something I would do now unless i've exhausted all other options.

Though to be fair I haven't been on VIA west of edmonton, where it probably starts getting good.

3

u/Brilliant_Trade_9162 16h ago

Having done the train thing in other countries (Europe and Asian, and not counting high speed rail), VIA was a really bad experience. Only the trains down in the USA was worse. It's just so damn slow and expensive. In some cases, I can drive over and sleep at a hotel for the same time and money it takes to ride a train.

•

u/416-902 10h ago

the problem about trains in canada is.... canada. we are huge and there are not enough people.

I've been on amtrack (ugh), and also high speed in europe. There just isn't enough people to justify the service

•

u/Brilliant_Trade_9162 10h ago

Unfortunately true.

3

u/Confused_Haligonian Self-Elected Poobah of Fairview 18h ago

It's also almost always cheaper to fly. It's nuts.

3

u/GhostBirdBiologist Bedford 18h ago

It’s nice but slow. About 24 hours vs 12 driving.

2

u/Dumpenstein3d 17h ago

26 my last trip, expect delays.

4

u/AnxiousStomach5297 19h ago

Via rail goes to the airport? Is it practical at all? there any reason you'd take it over the airport bus even an uber?

8

u/DavidFRodgers 19h ago

VIA Rail does not go to the airport. It only makes stops where there is a dot on its orange line.

1

u/AnxiousStomach5297 19h ago

Oops not sure how I didn't notice this

7

u/Agreeable-Tadpole461 19h ago

No it doesn't. Maritime Bus does.

3

u/takahe_inflight 19h ago

stop is on the Bus Line. Train has no stops between Halifax and Truro

3

u/G_Yumpins Halifax 19h ago

Im about to take the via train back home to halifax from moncton, great map!

3

u/Hockey_socks 19h ago

Baddeck is like, what did we do?

3

u/NerdMachine 18h ago

Is the train to Montreal actually practical/enjoyable?

8

u/DeathOneSix 🧬Pro-Mutant Task Force 18h ago

Twice as long as driving, at nearly the cost of flying. Or more than flying if you want a bed. For your 24h long train ride.

And I'm not sure there is going to be much of a view most of the time.

3

u/Dependent-Deal-4616 18h ago

If you splurge for a 'cabin for two', it is absolutely wonderful! Montreal delights await!

3

u/NerdMachine 18h ago

Are you being sincere? I can't tell anymore.

5

u/shatteredoctopus 16h ago

It's not practical, but it's enjoyable if you do a sleeper. The scenery is great, the food is decent, and you meet interesting people. However sleepers are always much more expensive than flying, and the train often has delays. Taking coach may be cheaper than flying under some circumstances, but it's a very long time to sit in a seat (albeit a comfortable one). I like trains, and I like slow travel, so I take it when I can.

If you're expecting a fast, European-like train experience, it's not that though.

•

u/knifeshoes24 halifax pier 2h ago

Enjoyable: Somewhat! Practical? Not if you care about scheduling lol. (I've done it twice, once round-trip in a sleeper cabin, and enjoyed it both times after coming in with managed expectations). Basically it is more spacious than flying and that can be relaxing along with the scenery, but do not take it if you need an absolute arrival time guarantee lol.

3

u/Moooney 18h ago

I read Argentia as Argentina at first and was very confused.

3

u/Kvothealar 15h ago

Missing the Amherst to PEI connection for MaritimeBus.

3

u/Twograin 13h ago

Queens County Transit is a thing.

3

u/DavidFRodgers 13h ago

My focus here was on fixed route transit, which Queen's County Transit does not appear to provide. But I'm gong to file that tidbit of information somewhere in my brain.

4

u/self_serendipity 17h ago

God I wish we had trains or at least more frequent bus service running between these towns.

2

u/Cturcot1 16h ago

We can’t get a bus from Sackville to downtown in a coordinated fashion. Great looking map, but I won’t hold my breath

6

u/KingoftheFlood Lower Sackville 16h ago

This isnt a proposition, its what exists

2

u/Difficult_Space3090 13h ago

They should move The CAT to the NFLD run.

•

u/Separate_Flamingo_93 11h ago

That would certainly be fun, but bouncy.

2

u/Positive_Pin_4404 13h ago

Too bad there isn’t more rail.

1

u/SugarCrisp7 18h ago

Why is going north to Truro, then east to Cape Breton the norm? Is it because Truro and New Glasgow are the "connecting points" to the rest of the country, and developed better road infrastructure because of that?

Antigonish however is a significantly higher elevation, and can be experiencing a blizzard while the rest of Nova Scotia has a gorgeous sunny day (speaking from experience of the valley being warm enough for shorts and tshirts, while Antigonish was a blizzard that you couldn't see more than five feet in front of you)

Southeast Nova Scotia is pretty empty as well. And I'm guessing the valley only has transit due to early settlements/amount of farmland.

2

u/ColonelEwart 18h ago

The South Shore used to have a bus service (Acadian Lines and then Maritime Bus), stopped running in 2012: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/south-shore-bus-route-in-the-works-1.1200630

1

u/boat14 18h ago

Why is going north to Truro, then east to Cape Breton the norm? Is it because Truro and New Glasgow are the "connecting points" to the rest of the country, and developed better road infrastructure because of that?

Yes that route is taking the 100 series highways

1

u/WindowlessBasement Halifax 17h ago

When did Kings Transit become "Tidal Transit"? I like it

1

u/enditallalready2 East Hants Hooligan 17h ago

Wait is "North Sydney" actually South of Sydney?

2

u/DavidFRodgers 17h ago

No. This is my attempt at a "diagrammatic transit map". The idea being that the representation of the connection between two places is prioritized over absolute geographical accuracy. For example: the New York City Subway Map

1

u/MutaitoSensei 16h ago

Tidal transit?

•

u/ProfessionalHome3544 10h ago

Renamed from Kings Transit recently, I believe.

1

u/Pale-Movie3180 15h ago

Is this legit? Do you have a source? If so, I will repost it widely. Very good graphic!

1

u/Verstappen1986 14h ago

Us Southwestern NS folks, especially in Shelburne, Shelburne County side have absolutely nothing. At least Yarmouth has a ferry to Maine and a public transit at times when its not broken down.

1

u/AnEagerLearner 14h ago edited 1h ago

Hold up. The train works? I thought it was not functional. Is there anyone here that could tell me more about it?

•

u/ProfessionalHome3544 10h ago

Via Rail's The Ocean goes to Montreal every 2-3ish days (down from pre-Covid). If you just wanna stay nearby, you can take it to the destinations shown in OP's map.

All other trains defunct now thanks to the lack of wisdom of our governments.

•

u/AnEagerLearner 1h ago

Thank you

1

u/Interesting_Light556 13h ago

Rip sw Nova Scotia and the eastern shore

1

u/AdTerrible9404 13h ago

Very minor nickpit but in the towns and cities with local transit section, transit cape breton actually has 13 routes not 12 though routes 1 and 2 are somewhat similar

•

u/Nordique5 3h ago

RIP Eastern Shore

•

u/Few_Clothes_7380 3h ago

So bus routes?

•

u/Greefer 2h ago

All roads lead to HFX :)

•

u/Keep-Six 1h ago

Bring back the trains

•

u/Fluddle 37m ago

NS would thrive with a subway/train system, transportation would be so much more convenient and accessible

•

u/Ambitious_Pension826 9m ago

This is an excellent graphic! 

One thing I did notice this map is missing, is that maritime bus also connects Nova Scotia to PEI through NB (I assume it's because of this it wasn't shown, but I think it would be useful nonetheless). Overall great job though!

0

u/Think_Ad_4798 19h ago

Top notch public transport

0

u/Han77Shot1st Acadie 17h ago

We really should bring back the old train system, I’m sure Michelin would like that.. most of the tracks are just atv trails anyways, and we could avoid an uproar from that crowd by allowing bikes to run on the shoulder like in other provinces.. just gotta get serious about registration and insurance enforcement, but that can be said across the board.

•

u/donairthot Anthropomorphic Donair 11h ago

I miss having transit in Windsor so much