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Dartmouth Extension

By John R. Cameron

Legislation was needed to encourage some shorter extensions. The then Town of Dartmouth was authorized to pay a subsidy of $4,000 a year for up to twenty years to any company building a line from Windsor Station (or any other point on the Intercolonial) to Dartmouth (1882, c.37). This was a large sum, as the statutory limit on the total tax levy for Dartmouth was only $15,000 at the time. Any funding from the Government of Canada would be used to reduce the cost of the subsidy to the Town. The authority was replaced the next year and also allowed the Town to strike a deal with the Government of Canada to extend the Intercolonial, and gave the Town the option of paying the subsidy at the rate of $2,000 per year for forty years. The Central Short Line Railway Company (1892, c.131) was eventually chartered to construct this line (notable incorporators included Fletcher Wade, of the Nova Scotia Central and Simon H. Holmes) but, in fact, the Government of Canada through the Intercolonial actually built the connection.

[SOURCE: A Legislative History of Nova Scotia Railways, by John R. Cameron, 1999.]

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