The only railway in and out of Nova Scotia was severely damaged by the floods over the weekend.
A section of the train tracks in Millbrook were left still intact but hanging in the air while the round beneath it has been complete washed out.
A pair of culverts designed to let water pass underneath the tracks were overloaded with water during this weekend’s record-breaking storm.
Source: Noel Brooks photos
The track connects the Port of Halifax with the rest of the country.
Port of Halifax spokesperson Lane Fargusson says they’re working to minimize disruptions while waiting for the track to be repaired.
“We have seen disruptions before, not with rail like this, but in other cases where the supply chains are disrupted. If it’s the kind of thing that we can manage for a couple of weeks on site, then that’s exactly what we’ll do. Anything beyond that it’s too early to say just what will happen,” said Fargusson.
With the railway out of commission until further notice, the main issue for the port is the backlog of containers piing up that would usually be shipped off on trains. Fargusson says they are working to find space to store the extra containers for the short term.
“What we’ll do is just find strategic ways of stacking it on the terminals, either on the terminals or nearby, and then as things carry on, we’ll be able to move empties off of the terminals and stack those in strategic locations as well,” said Fargusson.
If you take a look around wherever you are while you’re reading this, you’ll see dozens of items that arrived in Nova Scotia on a shipping container. Over 90 percent of all consumer goods have spent some amount of time in a container according to Fargusson. Everything from office supplies, to furniture, to food, to clothes. But Fargusson says the damaged track shouldn’t cause too much of a problem in terms of importing goods to the province.
He pointed out that many items will still arrive by boat, plane, and truck, and that the items that would have arrived by train can still get here too.
“If it’s something that’s critical, then it could be taken off at other points along the rail line like Moncton for example, and then trucked from there,” said Fargusson.
In a statement provided to our news team in an email, VIA rail said it has halted operation of it’s Montreal to Halifax route for all stops East of Moncton. They said that there is no timeline for when the service will resume, and that they are waiting for an update from CN Railways on when the tracks will be passable again.
Meanwhile, CN told us that any work to repair the track will be delayed until floodwater recedes.
