Gridlocked: How Halifax road closures, detours are creating traffic nightmares

After a weekend of significant bus delays throughout Halifax, a transit union president says he expects ongoing construction to cause frequent gridlocked traffic this summer.

Many people using Halifax’s transit services this past weekend experienced longer commutes than usual, as bridge closures, ongoing construction and car crashes contributed to lengthy bus delays throughout the city.

With summer just around the corner, development projects and increasing service interruptions will force transit users to adjust their schedules accordingly when riding the city’s public transit.

Ray Mackenzie, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union 508 (ATU 508), said he expects construction projects will likely lead to more detours and gridlocked traffic this summer.

“I have no idea to predict what can happen,” he said, adding that these challenges are resulting in operators sometimes running up to 90 minutes behind schedule.

“It’s very frustrating for passengers and clients trying to get around. The traffic was gridlocked on both ways.”

Mackenzie, who was first hired as a transit operator 20 years ago, said one of Halifax Transit’s biggest issues is that the service remains short-staffed — and weekends are when they have the least capacity.

“I know (during) the weekend past, they were short up to 22 operators at each garage,” he explained. “If we were staffed up fully, we’d be able to have more standby operators ready to go when you have those delays.”

He estimates that Halifax Transit is currently short about 45 operators, and that’s not including what’s needed to respond to the next phase of Halifax’s Moving Forward Together Plan, which looks to increase the frequency of services. He said another 40 workers will be required to adequately implement the municipality’s vision for transit.