Introduction

I am pleased to present Transportation in Canada 2024, which provides an overview of Canada’s transportation network at work.

Since 1936, Transport Canada has been helping people and goods move safely and efficiently across our vast country—home to the world’s longest coastline and spanning 10 million square kilometres. The transportation and warehousing sector directly contributed more than $96 billion to the Canadian economy in 2024, and the sector facilitates trillions of dollars of domestic and international trade along key corridors each year. In 2024, the transportation network and critical supply chains faced a number of challenges, from wildfires, labour disputes, and geopolitical instability. Despite these challenges, the system showed strong resilience, with passengers and goods continuing to move reliably across the country.

Improving the traveler experience remained a top priority. In May, Transport Canada co-hosted the first National Air Accessibility Summit, opening an important dialogue between industry and people with disabilities. And air travel grew again this year by nearly 6%, with more Canadians taking to the skies.

We also made progress on modernizing passenger rail. We announced a transformational High-Speed Rail project which will revolutionize travel through the Québec City to Toronto Corridor. At the same time, the Passenger Rail Transportation Security Program continued to strengthen rail safety.

Canadian transportation networks also support trade and our economy, and strengthening our robust supply chains is one of our top priorities. In 2024, cargo volumes increased by air, rail, and sea. The National Supply Chain Office continued to work with industry and other levels of government to keep goods flowing quickly and reliably. We invested in technology and infrastructure to keep supply chains strong and efficient, including more than $700 million in projects across the country.

We also took a stand against auto theft. We joined other federal partners to participate in a national summit and launched a National Action Plan. We’ve committed to modernizing Canadian safety standards and have funded innovative projects to develop theft prevention technologies.

The sustainability of transportation remains a guiding principle. Through programs like green shipping corridors, we’re investing in cleaner transportation options and building low- and zero-emission maritime routes between ports. In a shifting global context, a safe, sustainable, and reliable transportation network is essential to Canada’s economic strength. The progress we made in 2024 will provide a critical foundation for a strong future.

Sincerely,

The Honourable Chrystia Freeland
Minister of Transport and Internal Trade

Transportation is a crucial contributor to Canada’s economy and plays an essential role in supporting the well-being of Canadians. It enables the movement of people and goods across the country and internationally, and underpins key sectors such as manufacturing, natural resources, and tourism.

Efficient and reliable transportation links communities, urban centres, provinces, territories, and global markets. It ensures Canadian businesses have access to the materials and inputs they need to operate and helps deliver Canadian goods to consumers around the world.

Transport Canada (TC) is the federal department responsible for developing and implementing transportation policies and programs. In collaboration with its partners across the transportation portfolio, TC works to promote a transportation system that is safe, secure, efficient, and environmentally responsible.

Given Canada’s vast geography, low population density in many regions, and diverse weather conditions, moving goods and passengers safety, securely and efficiently is a complex and ongoing task. In this context, Transport Canada plays a central role in monitoring, analyzing, and reporting on the state of the national transportation system. It shares data and insights with Canadians through regular reporting to support transparency, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making.

Transport Canada undertakes a wide range of activities to improve Canada’s transportation system, including:

• Advancing major infrastructure initiatives and strategic projects;
• Investing in and supporting transportation networks through targeted funding programs;
• Conducting research, analysis, and policy development to inform transportation strategies and frameworks;
• Administering grants and contributions to improve transportation infrastructure across all modes;
• Developing and updating legislation, regulations, and national standards to maintain and improve safety, security, and environmental sustainability;
• Collaborating with stakeholders through engagement forums and partnerships to identify challenges and share best practices;
• Implementing inspection, enforcement, and oversight programs to make sure that goods and passengers move safely and efficiently across the country.
• Through these activities, Transport Canada helps build a modern, resilient, and forward-looking transportation system that meets the evolving needs of Canadians and the economy.

Specific initiatives and accomplishments from 2024 are highlighted throughout this report.

This report provides an overview of how Canada’s national transportation network is performing, evolving, and responding to current and emerging challenges. It gives a system-level view of transportation trends and results across modes of transportation, focusing on safety, fluidity, accessibility, sustainability, and economic performance.

The report is published as required by subsection 52(1) of the Canada Transportation Act, which requires the Minister of Transport to report to Parliament every year on the state of transportation in Canada.

The report is meant to support evidence-based decision making by presenting key indicators and analysis in a clear, accessible way. While it may reference federal actions where relevant to national outcomes, it is not a report on the department’s performance. Information on Transport Canada’s programs, results, and spending can be found in the Departmental Plan, Departmental Results Report, and GC InfoBase.

For readers seeking more detailed, disaggregated, or timely data, the Transportation Data and Information Hub—a collaboration between Transport Canada and Statistics Canada—has open access to interactive tools, datasets, and statistics that complement this report. Supplementary data tables containing data found in this report will be published on the hub following the report’s publication online.

By consolidating high-level insights from across the system, this report aims to inform Parliament, industry stakeholders, researchers, and the public on the key trends shaping transportation in Canada.

Supporting Trade

In 2024, Canada’s five key trade corridors—Pacific, Prairie, Central, Atlantic, and Northern—collectively supported $1.55 trillion in merchandise trade^{Footnote 1}, underscoring the role the national transportation network plays in supporting economic activity across domestic and global markets.

Supporting Communities, Businesses and Travelers

The Canadian transportation network demonstrated resiliency in 2024. It continued to support communities and businesses across the country in an efficient, safe, secure and environmentally sustainable way. Passenger volumes continued to improve, and in some cases, returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2024. Most notably:

• 57 million air passengers passed through pre-board security screening at Canada’s 8 largest airports in 2024, a 5.8% increase over 2023, and 2.7% more than in 2019. These same airports reached the service level target of 95% of passengers being screened within 15 minutes.
• In 2024, VIA Rail transported about 4.4 million passengers across the country—a 7% increase over 2023, (88% of 2019 levels).
• Urban transit systems across Canada continued to recover in 2024. Over the year, Canadians took approximately 1.6 billion trips on public transit—an increase from 1.5 billion in 2023 (84.2% of pre-pandemic levels).

Growth in Freight Volumes

Freight activity levels grew in line with modest economic growth, with notable increases across multiple modes:

• Air cargo volumes reached 1.58 million tonnes, a 4.4% increase over 2023, driven by rising e-commerce and expanded flight routes.
• Containerized cargo throughput at Canada’s four largest container ports rose by 4.6%, reflecting strong international trade performance.
• Rail shipments saw year-over-year increases of 2.8% in Western Canada and 1.6% in Central Canada.

System Disruptions and Resilience

Despite several disruptions—including wildfires across Canada, increased security-related threats to airlines, air cargo incendiary concerns, the CrowdStrike cyber outage, labour disputes (at Class I rail carriers and key ports), the Port of Baltimore bridge collapse, and global instability (e.g., Red Sea shipping risks, repatriation flights from the Middle East)—Canada’s transportation system demonstrated strong resilience. However, several challenges, such as high economic and trade volatility, an uncertain geopolitical environment, low productivity, insufficient investment and technology adoption, a high regulatory burden, and reduced connectivity in the transportation network will continue to prevent a full return to pre-pandemic performance in the near future.

Reducing Emissions

New emissions data for 2023 shows that while transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions have risen since the pandemic, they remain 12 megatonnes below 2019 levels. This progress reflects gains in vehicle efficiency, growing adoption of zero-emission vehicles, and increased use of cleaner fuels.

Modernization and Innovation Initiatives

In 2024, Transport Canada led and supported a wide range of initiatives that advanced transportation safety, innovation, accessibility, and environmental sustainability across all modes. Key accomplishments included:

Air

• Launch of the Air Right Touch (ART) initiative, testing facial recognition and digital identity tools for faster and more secure passenger processing at airports.
• Launched the Pre-load Air Cargo Targeting system, leveraging machine learning to enhance air cargo security and support economic resilience.
• Expanded drone operations and advanced the Drone Strategy to 2025, including steps toward beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) integration and drone traffic management systems.
• First National Air Accessibility Summit, resulting in key commitments to improve air travel for persons with disabilities.

Marine

• Continued implementation of the Oceans Protection Plan (OPP), including expanded Arctic surveillance, marine infrastructure upgrades in Northern communities, and strengthened spill response regulations.
• Increased Indigenous participation in marine safety and management, supported by over 40 partnership agreements and new investments in training, equipment, and data systems.
• High compliance (99%) with vessel speed restrictions to protect endangered whale species through voluntary and mandatory slowdown zones.
• Adoption of Canada's proposal for an Arctic Emissions Control Area by the International Maritime Organization, supporting marine emissions reductions.

Rail

• Significant progress on Canada’s High-Speed Rail initiative, with the procurement phase completed and the project entering co-development in 2025.

Road

• National Summit on Combatting Auto Theft and release of a federal action plan, leading to a 25% national reduction in vehicle theft rates.
• Major strides in Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAV) research, including vehicle-to-everything (V2X) testing by academic partners.

Multimodal

• Over 4,200 inspections conducted under the Transportation of Dangerous Goods (TDG) Program, resulting in more than 6,000 enforcement actions and full completion of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development audit action plan.
• Active engagement by the National Supply Chain Office (NSCO), including coordination during wildfire disruptions and efforts to address port bottlenecks and enhance digital infrastructure.