Vancouver BC Transportation Assets

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Vancouver International Airport is the Gateway to the Americas. It is the second busiest airport in the country and is served by more than twenty international carriers. Vancouver's Airport is located only 15 kilometers from the city centre and offers convenient connections to over 250 international business centres. Annually, the airport handles more than fifteen million passengers and 120,000 tonnes of air cargo. Vancouver International Airport handles more sea-air cargo than any other airport on the West Coast of North America. The cargo business at Vancouver International Airport is conducted by about 80 freight forwarders, customs brokers and other personnel. Together, they provide shippers with competitive services and prices all over North America.

 

 
  Port Vancouver is the largest and most diversified international port on the West Coast. The port of Vancouver is a safe, year-round, all-weather, deep-water harbour, with 276 kilometers of coastline under its navigational jurisdiction. Vancouver handles coal, grain, potash, sulfur, mineral concentrates, petroleum products, liquid chemicals, lumber, pulp, paper, woodchips, containers and cruise ships.

Port Vancouver has an annual tonnage throughput of more than 70 million metric tonnes. Currently, Port Vancouver is the largest and busiest port in Canada.

As a year-round harbour, the Port of Vancouver offers its customers a wide range of facilities and services for diversified cargos. In addition, the Port of Vancouver has excellent rail, truck, and air connections, competitive rates and skilled personnel.

The Port of Vancouver is also home to the Vancouver to Alaska cruise route, welcoming over 1,000,000 revenue cruise passengers every year. Served by two cruise facilities -- Ballantyne Pier and Canada Place Cruise Ship Terminal -- Vancouver's Cruise Ship industry is a growing and vibrant opportunity.
  B.C. Ferries - Local transportation between Greater Vancouver, Vancouver Island and the surrounding islands is served by B.C. Ferries. B.C. Ferries provides ferry service between Vancouver and Vancouver Island.  Every year, B.C. Ferries carries over 21 million passengers and 7.5 million vehicles. With a fleet of 40 vessels, B.C. Ferries serves 43 marine terminals on 26 routes throughout British Columbia and generated $378 million Cdn. of revenue in 2001. 
  Roads - Seven separate highways make up the well-maintained, all-weather highway system of Greater Vancouver. Additionally, the Trans-Canada Highway links the Greater Vancouver region to all of the major business centres in Canada. This network of roads permits efficient, long-distance trucking, and provides connections with inter-regional and U.S. Interstate routes.

Canada-U.S. border crossings are handled quickly and efficiently. During 2000, vehicle traffic between Canada and the US accounts to over 86 million crossings. There are five border-crossing points between the Lower Mainland and the United States. Furthermore, agreements between the Canadian and U.S. governments give truck operators from Greater Vancouver easy access to any North American destination.
 

Rail - There are several major freight rail companies that operate within Canada that have direct relationships with the City of Vancouver.

The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) is one of the largest railway systems in North America, with about 25,000 route kilometres of rail line in Canada and the United States.

Using a combination of single-stack and double stack cars and flatcars for trailers and containers, CPR is a leading carrier in the intermodal (trailer and container) industry. It moves intermodal traffic between the Port of Vancouver and Chicago, Toronto and Montreal, as well as between the eastern ports of Montreal, Chicago, New York and Baltimore and the industrial heartlands of Canada and the U.S. The CPR also deals with many of the world's leading shipping lines, whose routes cover the world.

In 2000, CPR travelled 210.7 billion gross ton-miles and accumulated $3.6 billion in revenue. The CPR's heaviest concentration of traffic is on its Calgary to Vancouver route. The CPR's main commodities include food, auto, forest products, coal, sulfur, fertilizer, potash, grain, and foreign exchange.

The Canadian National Railway Company (CN) operates a network of approximately 22,000 route kilometres in Canada and the United States, generating revenues from the movement of a diversified and balanced portfolio of industrial products, forest products, grain products, coal, sulfur, fertilizers, intermodal traffic and automobiles. In 2000, CN accumulated $5.4 billion revenue and $288.2 billion in gross ton-miles.