Halifax has stalled its consideration of options to reduce truck traffic in downtown.

Phillip Davies, a transportation consultant from Vancouver, has pitched moving freight by ferry and rail to cut congestion, but his ideas will have to wait until the Halifax Port Authority completes its new master plan.

The municipality hired Davies to study trucking options before knowing the port authority was considering relocating one of its two container terminals to the Dartmouth side of the harbour.

Davies presented his ideas Thursday to the municipal transportation committee, which will send them to regional council.

But Halifax planners say any new trucking studies will have to be carefully timed.

"It's hard for us to make recommendations about what we need to do when we don't even really know where the port is going to be," said David McCusker, municipal transportation planner.

Reducing the number of container trucks in the downtown has become even more important now that the Cogswell interchange — the current truck route — is about to be redeveloped. The report by Davies found commercial vehicles account for a larger share of collisions in downtown and on port routes than elsewhere in the municipality.

"It's going to cost real money to get the trucks out of the downtown," said Coun. Waye Mason, who represents south-end Halifax.

"There is a huge value there but it's hard to measure."

The Port of Halifax says it's looking at relocating a container terminal across to the Dartmouth side of the harbour. (Elizabeth McMillan/CBC)

Davies offered several options for a rail shuttle to move containers from the Halterm facility in south-end Halifax to the Ceres Halifax facility in Fairview next to the MacKay Bridge.

"You can either load them with a crane or put a container with a chassis, or you could put the whole truck on," he said.

Rail shuttles are used in Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Cross-harbour ferries for freight are not as common, although one is used between New York and New Jersey.

Halifax transportation manager Jane Fraser told the committee the municipality would be working closely with the port authority.

Port officials are asking for public input into its new master plan. An update is expected early next year.

Read more about rail and ferry options to reduce truck traffic: