The Atlantic Corridor is relatively less populated than other Canadian regions. It is home to 2.3 million people, concentrated in small and scattered urban areas. Nevertheless, its network plays an important role in facilitating domestic and international trade.
Key exports from Atlantic Canada include petroleum products and seafood products. In 2020, $24 billion worth of exported merchandise for all transportation modes (excluding pipeline) moved from the region with 66% of the exported value destined to the US, 17% for Europe and 10% for Asia.
Connection to international and domestic markets is facilitated by a series of marine ports anchored by the Port of Halifax (8.3 million tonnes in 2020), the largest container handling port in Atlantic Canada and an important hub for petroleum products and motor vehicles. The Port of Halifax is also one of the few ports on the North American east coast that can handle fully laden post-Panamax container vessels and is also North America’s closest point of ice-free access to Europe and Asia (via the Suez Canal).
The Port of Saint John in New Brunswick is Atlantic Canada’s largest port in terms of tonnage (26.0 million tonnes in 2020). Saint John is an important port for processing, refining and shipping crude oil. Similarly, the Port of Come-by-Chance in Newfoundland and Labrador handles a large quantity of petroleum products from the province’s offshore oil development project sites.
The highway network in Atlantic Canada is defined by the Trans-Canada Highway, the east-west backbone of the region running from the Quebec border to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
In 2020, a single Class I railway, CN, provided freight services to and from central Canada through to Halifax. A number of shortline railways also provided feeder services in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
On the passenger side, VIA Rail operates the Ocean train, a long-haul passenger route that operates between Montreal and Halifax. The Ocean transported 9 thousand passengers in 2020.
The region includes 26 airports, with the largest airports being located in Halifax and St John’s.
Crown-owned Marine Atlantic Inc. provides ferry services linking the island of Newfoundland to Nova Scotia, transporting more than 311,499 passengers, while private operators, on behalf of Transport Canada, provide inter-provincial ferry services in Eastern Canada, including service between:
- Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Québec and Souris, PEI
- Saint John, New Brunswick and Digby, Nova Scotia, and
- Wood Islands, PEI and Caribou, Nova Scotia
In 2019, the Government announced its support for Marine Atlantic Inc. to modernize its fleet through the procurement of a new ferry and that it will procure 2 new ferries to replace the MV Madeleine, operating between Îles-de-la-Madeleine and Souris, PEI and the MV Holiday Island, operating between Wood Islands, PEI and Caribou, Nova Scotia. In 2020, the Government announced that it would acquire the MV Villa de Teror (renamed the MV Madeleine II) as an interim solution to replace the MV Madeleine until the new replacement ferry is ready for service.