Halifax Dartmouth Ferry - Metro Transit, Dartmouth
Located at 200 Ilsley Ave
Dartmouth
Nova Scotia
Canada
B3B1V1
Why fight traffic on the bridges when you can park at one of our Park & Ride locations and hop on the ferry? In only 12 minutes, you will be at the other side of the Halifax Harbour.
Our Ferries operate on two routes between terminals in downtown Halifax and Dartmouth.
The ferry service is fully integrated with the bus and Access-A-Bus systems, carries up to 395 passengers, and has adjacent Park & Ride lots.
The Ferries also provide the tourist an inexpensive harbour tour. Take the family, your camera and binoculars and take a round "trip" tour of the bustling, historic Halifax Waterfront.
The harbour ferry service and its recognizable ferry vessels are a distinctive feature of the historic Halifax Harbour. The three ferries, christened the Dartmouth III, the Halifax III and the Woodside I, constantly criss-cross the second largest harbour in the world and have become one of the modern day icons of our region.
The ferry service also provides an important symbolic link with our community's past. In 2002, the Halifax Harbour ferry service celebrated its 250th anniversary, and it is the oldest, continuous, salt-water passenger ferry service in North America.
The "Dartmouth ferry" as it was originally known, began operation in 1752 and served as a vital link for the community of Dartmouth, which was settled a year after the larger British Military Garrison was established in Halifax. With vast farmland, woods and freshwater lakes, the Dartmouth settlers provided the Halifax garrison town with food products and ice for the many icehouses, which were used to keep food fresh. The Dartmouth ferry continued to serve as the only quick way of travelling across the harbour to Halifax until 1955, when the Angus L.Macdonald Bridge was first opened.
Today, the harbour ferry service is part of Halifax's regional transportation system, operated by Metro Transit and fully integrated with the bus system. The service was taken over by the regional transit system from the former city of Dartmouth in 1994. HRM's Metro Transit system has the distinction of being one of only two public transit systems in the country to operate passenger ferries. The other is located in Vancouver, British Columbia. The ferry is treasured by tourists, as a quick, easy, economical way to view our communities from the water, and by its 3000 loyal daily commuters, who value the experience of travelling to work year round by the scenic and convenient ferryboat.