Yes, we can afford it.

Our future depends on it. The benefits of Light Rail Public Transit far outweigh the cost. At this moment, there is an existential (global and local) crisis that revolves around population growth and climate change, housing and affordability, social equity, health and quality of life, as well as economic prosperity. These “wicked” issues cannot be solved in isolation. Nor can we in Nova Scotia afford to just accelerate car-dependant growth and spending on bus rapid transit (BRT) corridors in the central part of HRM. These are costly, short term and short-sighted measures that are distracting, wasteful, and serve to perpetuate the crisis we’re in.

More importantly, immediate and temporary efforts will significantly compromise Nova Scotians’ ability to navigate through these turbulent times and build on the province’s potential.

What we do now matters. It is setting the stage for the next fifty years and possibly longer. In terms of size, Nova Scotia is more under-developed and under-populated than it is small. Nova Scotia’s land area is 55,284 square kilometres with a population of one-million people. By way of comparison, the state of Maryland is 22,123 square kilometres and has a population of six-million. Holland is 35,000 square kilometres and its population is 17.9-million.

There is lots of room to grow in Nova Scotia. What we need is imagination and vision. Light Rail Public Transit is the key transformational infrastructure which is essential to our growth. It is the basis for a bold vision that includes urban and rural communities and addresses the critical problems and opportunities of our time. It’s not a question of size. It’s a question of vision.

Nova Scotia is coastal. The transit system should generally follow the coastline. Most existing urban and rural settlements are around the edges of the province. The system is conceived as a network of main transit lines that serve the centre, suburbs and rural parts of HRM. Beyond HRM, the transit would extend as a spine around Nova Scotia to connect existing communities as well as new centres, hubs and stations, in appropriate locations.

This is a chicken and egg question.

We don’t have a public transit system (we just have bus routes). We have bus service that’s not reliable or frequent or fast. And so no one uses it. People don’t use it because it’s not there.

Nova Scotia continues to build highways which cost us half-a-billion dollars per year. That’s a destructive waste of money. Public transit is by far the most cost-effective investment we can make right now. It has multiple benefits – in accommodating growth, providing more housing and making it more affordable, while helping to mitigate climate change, increase tourism, reduce the individual cost of transportation, attract more business and become more equitable.

At this point, Rail Connects, a not-for-profit organization, is taking the lead. Our purpose is:

- To broadly raise public and political awareness, understanding and support for Light Rail Public Transit as essential to the future:

- To develop concepts showing what Light Rail Public Transit would look like and illustrate the difference it would make in peoples’ lives; and

- To establish and value the benefits of investing in LRPT now.

After many years of trying, with many partners and groups, to convince all levels of government of the need to stop building highways and more car-oriented development – and lead with a vision based on Light Rail Public Transit – it has become abundantly clear that government’s current view is too short term, that there are too many vested interests in the status quo, and that public transit is a cross-sectoral initiative with benefits and objectives that don’t neatly fit into any department’s mandate or election cycles. Rail Connects, and by extension, people, the public, young and old, urban and rural, have to lead now. In short order, once there is broad popular support, government – Municipal, Provincial and National – needs to lead.