Metro Transit is cutting evening ferry service. The last boat leaving Halifax in the evenings will now depart at 10:30 p.m. instead of 11:45 p.m.
This is insane. Dartmouthians who want to go out for an evening in downtown Halifax (for instance to Neptune, to a comedy club, to any bar not named Celtic Corner) and Haligonians who want an evening in downtown Dartmouth (to visit the famous KevvyD, for a concert/show at Alderney Landing, or to go to a bar named Celtic Corner) are shit out of luck. Or will need to designate a driver and waste a bunch of gas.
The Sunday ferry service will also start later in the morning. I guess downtown Dartmouth is getting a bit too vibrant? People moving to condos there is a problem, so council wants to discourage that? I’m baffled by this short-sighted decision.
I’m going to have to assume they will decide not to do this in the end – the backlash is coming hard and fast from the business community as well as downtown developers on both sides of the harbour. You’re right in your assessment – this is an insane decision to make, though we are to understand the budget situation for Metro Transit is not good. Well, we have to take that on faith of course, as they won’t show us any numbers, as any journalist who cared to ask were turned away. (Well, okay, Tim Bousquet was turned away.)
It’s another example of how the sprawl that our city has become is killing us a city.