• British Columbia, Canada’s third largest province, comprises 9.5 percent of the country’s total land area and is home to over four million people - 13 percent of Canada’s population. Between 1996 and 2001, B.C. was the third fastest growing province in Canada increasing 4.9 percent.
• In 2001, B.C.’s international exports totaled $32 billion. The U.S. ranked first, receiving 70 percent of B.C.’s exports, and Japan came in second with 12.5 percent of B.C.’s exports…
• During 2001, $9.2 billion was spent by 22.4 million overnight visitors traveling in B.C, a two percent drop in revenue from 2000. Of that amount, $2.5 billion was spent by B.C. residents travelling in the province, $2.7 billion was spent by other Canadians, $2.3 billion was spent by U.S. residents, $638 million was spent by European visitors, and $919 million was spent by Asia Pacific residents…
• British Columbia’s transportation and warehousing industry employed 106,900 people in 2001. BC Stats figures indicate that’s roughly the same amount of people who work in B.C.’s construction industry and more than the 80,900 people who are employed in the agriculture, forestry, fishing, oil and gas, mining, and utilities sectors…
• Truck and rail transportation are B.C.’s largest transportation industries…

• The Port of Vancouver handled 72.9 million tonnes of cargo in 2001, a slight drop from the record 76.5 million tonnes handled in 2000…
• Vancouver is Canada’s busiest port and ranks sixth in North America in terms of cargo volume. In 2001, container volumes hit 1,146,577 TEU’s (20-foot equivalent units), down one percent from 2000…
• The Port of Vancouver cruise ship industry registered its 19^th consecutive year of growth in 2001. Cruise ships carried 1,060,383 revenue cruise passengers on the Vancouver - Alaska run in 2001, a one percent increase over the year before…
• Roberts Bank’s Westshore Terminals, the largest dry bulk terminal on the west coast of the Americas, unloaded 1,954 unit trains and loaded 250 ships with over 23.million tonnes of coal in 2001 - a three percent increase over 2000.
• Total tonnage shipped through Prince Rupert dropped in 2001, slipping to 5 million tonnes of products in 2001, down 34 percent from 2000… Close to 30 small cruise ships are expected to visit Prince Rupert in 2002, a slight increase over last year’s visits…
• International cargo shipments through Fraser Port grew five percent in 2001 to three million tonnes, compared to 2.9 million tonnes in 2000… Overall Fraser Port handled 22.2 million tonnes of cargo in 2001, a decrease of ten percent over 2000…
• In 2001, BC Ferries’ 40 vessels travelled on 25 routes and visited 46 ports of call. The ferries carried 21.3 million passengers and 8.1 million vehicles, roughly the same number as the previous year…

• British Columbia has 97 certified aerodromes and 218 registered aerodromes…
• In 2001, there were 1,646,915 aircraft movements in B.C., compared with 7,049,051 for all of Canada. That is 23 percent of the nation’s total…
• There are 5,128 registered aircraft in B.C., compared with 28,583 for all of Canada. That is 18 percent of the Canadian total…
• There are over 250 licensed scheduled and charter commercial operators in B.C. Almost every B.C. community with a float or an airport has a charter operator based in their area…
• There are 78 commercial helicopter operators in B.C. They operate over 250 commercial helicopters. That is 36 percent of the nation’s total commercial helicopters…
• B.C.’s busiest airport, in terms of passenger traffic, is Vancouver, followed by Victoria, Kelowna, Prince George and Abbotsford…
• Vancouver International Airport handled 15.5 million passengers in 2001, a three percent decrease over 2000…
• Passenger traffic at Victoria International Airport climbed two percent in 2001, rising from 1.1 million in 2000, to 1.2 million…
• A record 850,311 passengers passed through Kelowna Airport in 2001 - a two percent increase over 2000…
• Prince George Airport had 362,087 passengers in 2001, a decrease of eight percent over 2000’s total of 394,062 passengers…
• Abbotsford Airport had the highest jump in passenger traffic at a B.C. airport, with over 306,500 passengers in 2001 - an increase of 28 percent over 2000’s total of 240,000…

• B.C.’s rail system includes roughly 7,700 kilometres of mainline railroad track…
• Rail services in B.C. are provided by CN Rail, CP Rail, BC Rail, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the Southern Railway of B.C., Amtrak, Rocky Mountain Railtours, VIA Rail, West Coast Express, Okanagan Valley Wine Train, Okanagan Valley Railway, White Pass and Yukon Route, RailAmerica/E&N Railway, Kelowna Pacific Railway, Grand Forks Railway, B.C. Forest Products Railway and International Rail Road Systems…
• The West Coast Express hit the 10 millionth passenger mark in 2001. Since opening day, WC Express ridership has increased steadily from about 5,000 riders a day to about 8,000. In 2001, the commuter railway carried 1.9 million passengers, a one percent drop from 2000…
• Rocky Mountain Railtours carried over 70,000 passengers in 2001. The company now offers148 departures, up from 40 in 1990, their first year of operation.

• In B.C., there are roughly 65,000 kilometres of roads - 2,000 kilometres of the roads are federally-owned, 42,000 kilometres are provincially-owned and 21,000 kilometres are owned by the municipalities… The Canadian road system consists of 902,000 kilometres: seven percent is in British Columbia…
• In 2001, there were 1,764,614 licensed passenger vehicles in B.C., an increase of 39,306 vehicles from 2000…
• Over 35,000 trucking companies are registered in B.C.

Transport Trends is published by Transport Canada’s Pacific Region to keep our clients and stakeholders up-to-date on transportation activities and trends in B.C. Questions or suggestions please phone (604) 666-1675, fax (604) 666-7255, e-mail nelsoro@tc.gc.ca.