Buses are running late, routes are overcrowded and new vehicles need to be ordered as Halifax Transit looks to implement a $70-million service revamp, its first major attempt at shaking up the system in a decade.

A report to be delivered to the city’s transportation standing committee on Monday includes a new “core service plan” which proposes changes to 37 per cent of transit routes. The proposal, which will still need a green light from the regional council before moving ahead, comes as city hall and the provincial government struggle to alleviate worsening traffic snarls.

TomTom, a navigation technology company, recently ranked Halifax as the third-most congested city in Canada behind only Vancouver and Toronto but ahead of Montreal.

Here’s five things you need to know about the proposed changes:

What is the “core service plan?”

The proposal includes more frequent trips and expanded hours on many of the city’s busiest bus routes, especially at peak commuting times. It also calls for a new bus line serving the fast-growing West Bedford neighbourhood and increased service for the airport bus from the current 22 hours to 24 hours.

Halifax Transit says it’s a way to get short-term relief ahead of a larger reworking of the system expected in 2028.

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Why is it needed?

The last major transit shakeup was approved in 2016. The city said it had increased ridership significantly until the pandemic scuttled demand in 2020. Ridership returned to pre-pandemic levels in the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Originally planned as a five-year project, the 2016 revamp was only completed last year because of pandemic-related delays.

Halifax’s population has boomed in the post-pandemic years in a way the 2016 plan did not envision. Statistics Canada estimates the city’s population was almost 545,000 in 2025, an increase of about 15 per cent — more than 70,000 people — since 2020.

Riders have expressed frustration with overcrowded buses, scheduling issues and missed trips. The service had an on-time rating of 88 per cent in 2020 when the pandemic kept many people at home. Its performance has steadily dropped since then, hitting a low of just 69 per cent in 2025. That’s 16 percentage points below Halifax Transit’s target of 85 per cent on-time service.

How much will it cost?

The city says it will need 30 new buses — a mix of 18-metre diesel articulated vehicles and 12-metre electric buses — to make all the proposed changes. The capital cost for vehicles is pegged at $53 million in the next three years, with additional operating costs estimated at $22.1 million. Funding the plan would add about $63.73 to the average property tax bill over the same time span, says the report.

How many people take transit?

There’s now an average of 104,000 weekday boardings across the transit system, a 7,000-trip increase from 2018. The city says the number of overloaded buses has increased threefold over that period.

The report notes Halifax Transit’s harbour ferries don’t get stuck in traffic and ridership is up. Saturday ridership has increased 37 per cent since 2018 with just one of the two ferry lines running on weekends and the numbers are now comparable to weekday ridership. Around 58,000 to 65,000 people take the ferry, depending on the day.

What’s the long-term plan?

Halifax Transit says it’s moving away from multi-year transit plans in favour of a “strategic road map.” It says that will allow it to be more flexible and better able to respond to evolving transit needs as new neighbourhoods are developed and major transportation infrastructure comes online.

The road map calls for a new and more expansive reworking of Halifax Transit’s service plan in 2028. It will look to integrate regular bus service with four proposed “bus rapid transit” lines designed to sweep people across town with all-day service, fewer stops, increased frequency, transit priority signals and dedicated bus lanes. The expanded revamp will also look at folding the planned Mill Cove ferry service linking downtown Halifax to Bedford into the larger transit system.

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