Transportation in North America
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North America is a continent that contains some of the best transportation networks the world has ever seen, containing the United States Interstate Highway System of highways.[citation needed] The continent has large valleys, rolling plains, and a network of navigable rivers and lakes that reach farthern inland than any other waterway in the world, giving this continent the appearance that it was built for transportation.
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[edit] Waterways
Waterways were the primary method of transportation of people and goods, and used by the native aboriginies in dugout canoes and kayaks.
The waterways remained important since Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492, right up until the First World War. Though their use has diminished somewhat with the arrival of rail transportation, the Interstate Highway/400 series highways networks of America and Canada, and with the debut of air travel, they are still widely used for transporting goods from the Midwest to overseas markets.
The cities of Duluth, Minnesota and Thunder Bay, Ontario (to some extent, Chicago, Illinois as well) are the most inland seaports/deepwater ports in the world, being well over 2000 miles from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, yet they still can cater to cargo ships, thanks to the St. Lawrence Seaway, Welland Canal and Soo Locks, a joint-venture binational system of dams, locks, and canals built by Canada and the United States in 1959. The Mississippi/Missouri River system also sees a large amount of oceanbound ship traffic from cities such as St. Louis, Kansas City, and New Orleans.
Churchill, Manitoba also serves as a minor port for grain and wheat loaded via rail cars, and loaded onto ships bound for Europe at the intermodal facilities in that town.
The nation of Panama currently operates one of the world's busiest and most familiar waterways, the Panama Canal. This canal cuts through the isthmus of panama, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, shaving off more than 9000 miles (14,000 km) for ships, instead of having them travel around the tip of Cape Horn in South America. A ship travelling from New York City to San Francisco would be roughly 9,500 km (6,000 miles) in distance, while a trip around Cape Horn would be 22,500 km (14,000 miles) in length. The Canal functions similarly to the Suez Canal in Egypt.
[edit] Ferry services
Currently, car ferry and rail ferry service between New York City, New York/New Orleans, Louisiana/Miami, Florida, United States, and Havana, Cuba is suspended, due to the ongoing embargo by the United States against Cuba. There is however, rail ferry service between Alaska and British Columbia and Washington state (Seattle). Regular ferry service also links Vancouver Island and isolated Sunshine Coast communities to the mainland and to Alaska. There is also automobile ferry service between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, from Quebec to Labrador, and between Labrador and the island of Newfoundland.
[edit] Railways
[edit] Canada and the United States
The railway network of North America is extremely extensive, connecting nearly every single major and most minor cities together. The nations of the United States, Canada, and Mexico have an interconnected system with railheads stretching from Hay River, Northwest Territories, Canada to Puerto Madero, Mexico, and on Vancouver Island. The state government of Alaska also operates the Alaska Railroad, which currently does not connect to the North American network (but may have if BC Rail was able to finish its Dease Lake extension, which is still possible as the remainder of the route has been graded), and several companies in Quebec and Labrador have rail lines leading from Labrador City, NL to Sept-Îles, but currently do not connect to the North American network, either.
[edit] Newfoundland and Labrador
There have also been proposals in recent years to link the island of Newfoundland to the mainland of North America via a 17 km-long rail tunnel under the Strait of Belle Isle, which would also carry automobile traffic on flat cars, similar to the Channel Tunnel between England and France. This has stalled, however, due to the lack of a large road network and a lack of rail lines in Labrador at this time, and the remoteness of the area on both sides of the strait in Newfoundland and Labrador. Another issue to contend with is that Newfoundland had abandoned its Canadian National/Newfoundland Railway lines (3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow-gauge) in 1988–1990, turning it into the Newfoundland T'Railway, a rail trail spanning the entire island. An automobile tunnel would be most likely unfeasable due to the length needed to cross the strait, and the difficulties of removing automobile exhaust and bringing in fresh air via large circulation fans throughout the entire tunnel.
[edit] Alaska
Although Alaska is currently not connected to the North American rail network, there are plans to connect Alaska via BC Rail's incomplete but graded rail extension to Dease Lake, where the rails have been laid to Jackson, British Columbia.[1] Until this happens, the only way for rail-based equipment to enter or leave Alaska is via rail ferry from Seattle, Washington and British Columbia. The only rail connection is the White Pass and Yukon Route, a narrow-gauge heritage railway linking Whitehorse, Yukon with Skagway, Alaska. A rail connection between Alaska and the North American rail network could prove beneficial, and could even become a vital link towards a rail link over a Bering Strait Bridge, if it is ever built. If the bridge is dual gauge, it could even allow trains from Russia (which uses broad gauge) and Europe (which also uses standard gauge, the same as North America) to access the North American network.
[edit] Railheads of the network
The current railheads, or endpoints of the rail network are at Hay River, Northwest Territories (the northernmost part of the North American rail network, operated by CN), Jackson, British Columbia (formerly BC Rail), Lynn Lake and Churchill, Manitoba (Hudson Bay Railway), Moosonee (Ontario Northland Railway), Chibougamau, Quebec and Matagami, Quebec (also CN), which are all on the northern edge of the North American Rail Network. In the west, the railheads are at Vancouver, British Columbia, Prince Rupert, British Columbia (CPRail), with ferry service to Vancouver Island for the railways linking Nanaimo, Esquimalt, and Victoria. In the east, the North American network extends to Halifax, Nova Scotia and Sydney, Nova Scotia.
In the south, the rail lines terminate at Tapachula, Ciudad Madero, and Ciudad Hidalgo, with a short spur line to the border city of Ciudad Tecún Umán, Guatemala (owned by Ferrovías Guatemala with trackage rights leased to Ferrocarriles Chiapas-Mayab (owned by Genessee and Wyoming).
[edit] Mexico and Central America
Mexico has a connection to Guatemala, but it is a break of gauge, since Mexico uses standard gauge (1435 mm), while Guatemala and Central America use narrow gauge (914 mm). Aside from a short spur line linking border city of Ciudad Tecún Umán, Guatemala, the entire nation is on 914 mm gauge.
South of Guatemala, there are numerous breaks of gauge, such as 1067 mm (with Honduras), and El Salvador (which uses the same 914 mm gauge of rail, but is currently closed, with some sections abandoned and unusable). Nicaragua has also closed its rail network in 1996, though the majority of it was 1067 mm gauge, with some 1435 mm lines along the Atlantic Coast. Costa Rica's railroads are of 1067 mm gauge, along with a private 600 mm gauge railroad at 3.5 km in length. The railroads of Panama are connected to Costa Rica. The country had two gauges: broad gauge (5 ft / 1524 mm), which was converted to standard gauge (1435 mm), in 2000, and narrow gauge (914 mm). Like the situation with roads, the Darien Gap is a formidable obstacle to railroads, and no railways cross it into South America.
[edit] Roadways
This continent's roadways are of very high quality, which is required to move its large population and all of its goods smoothly. The road network extends from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and Anchorage, Alaska in the extreme northwest, to Sydney, Nova Scotia and Natashquan, Quebec in the extreme east, all the way to Yaviza, Panama in the extreme south. The roads across North America vary from ice/winter roads which link remote arctic and subarctic communities, to all-season multi-lane divided highways.
[edit] United States
The United States' road network is the largest in the world, with over 2 million miles of roadways, 46,837 miles (75,376 km) of those are Interstate Highways, and another 120,000 are U.S. Highways. All Interstates, some U.S. Highways, and many state highways form the National Highway System, totalling 160,000 miles (256,000 kilometers). The Interstate Highway System is almost completely composed of multi-lane, dual-carriageway freeways. The contiguous United States are also connected to its exclave, Alaska, via the Alaska Highway, which links the state to Yukon Territory, British Columbia, and the Lower 48 states.
[edit] Canada
Canada's national road network is the Trans Canada Highway, with its auxiliary branches, the Yellowhead Highway which branches to the north, and the Crowsnest Highway, which acts as a southern spur or shortcut to travelling from Alberta to British Columbia across the Rockies. Canada's national road network is very similar to the US Route network, as it is mostly two-lane without freeway sections, aside from in and near large population centres, such as Montreal, Calgary, and Regina. Canada and the United States have also built the vital[2] Alaska Highway, linking Anchorage, Alaska (and the rest of the state) to the rest of Canada and the United States.
Although Canada does not have a federal-level network of freeways, All provinces east of Ontario are inter-linked by provincial-level freeways, such as Ontario's 400-series highways network, Quebec's Autoroute network, New Brunswick's upgrades to its portions of the Trans-Canada Highway, and Nova Scotia's 100-series highways. These freeways are the provincial equivalents to the United States' Interstate Highway system. The only gap between Windsor, Ontario and Halifax, Nova Scotia is along Route 185/Autoroute 85, which is being twinned and upgraded to become a fully-divided Autoroute. This gap is quite busy and will be upgraded and "fixed" within the next 10 years.
The province of Ontario is the only province to contain its own system of county roads, which are controlled and maintained by the Counties, Districts, and Regions of Ontario.
Provinces west of Manitoba have their own networks of highways (of which, the majority are not freeways or divided highways), with Winnipeg also having its own Winnipeg City Routes. Alberta has its own small but growing inter-connected network of divided highways and freeways, such as Alberta Highway 1, Highway 2, and Highway 16. British Columbia also has a small network of freeways linking Vancouver to Prince George, via Highway 1, and Highway 5, a toll road.
[edit] Newfoundland and Labrador
There have also been proposals in recent years to link the island of Newfoundland to the mainland of North America via a 17 km-long rail tunnel under the Strait of Belle Isle, which would also carry automobile traffic on flat cars, similar to the Channel Tunnel between England and France. This has stalled, however, due to the lack of a large road network and a lack of rail lines in Labrador at this time, and the remoteness of the area on both sides of the strait in Newfoundland and Labrador. Another issue to contend with is that Newfoundland had abandoned its segments of its CN/Newfoundland Railway lines (1067 mm / 3 ft 6 in. narrow-gauge) in 1988–1990, turning it into the Newfoundland T'Railway, a rail trail spanning the entire island. An automobile tunnel would be most likely unfeasable due to the length needed to cross the strait, and the difficulties of removing automobile exhaust and bringing in fresh air via large circulation fans throughout the entire tunnel.
[edit] Mexico
Mexico also has a very large road network, 323,977 km worth of roads. Of these, 96,221 km are paved (this is including 6,335 km of expressways) The remainder (227,756 km worth) is unpaved. Since 1991, Mexico has been building toll freeways that link its major cities together. Currently, there are 6,335 km worth of toll freeways in the country, with the numbering scheme of n-D (n being the number of the road bypassed, such as 45, with toll freeway as 45-D, meaning 45 Diversion).
[edit] Central America
Central America's roadway network continues, linking every major city and capital, via the Pan-American Highway, which continues through Panama, across the Panama Canal, to Yaviza, Panama. It is separated from South America by the large Darien Gap.
[edit] Air travel
Air travel first entered as a viable alternative to transcontinental railroads, and to the then-primitive (or non-existent) road networks that crossed the United States and Canada in the early 1930s, but truly increased in popularity after the Second World War.
[edit] See also
- Geography of North America
- Communications in North America
- List of countries
- Transport
- Economy of Earth#Transportation
- List of countries by rail transport network size
- Transportation in Europe
- Bering Strait Bridge
- Trans Global Highway
- Cosmopolitan Railway
[edit] References
- ^ AlaskaCanadaRail.org
- ^ Alaska Highway on Wikipedia
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