4/19/05

Transportation routes all lead toward the Pacific Rim

CP Rail bets on increased trade with Asia with expansion of freight facilities

BY DERRICK PENNER
VANCOUVER SUN

Canadian transportation routes are increasingly leading toward the Pacific as governments, railways and shippers pour billions of dollars into improving British Columbia's links with the Asia Pacific Rim.

"[Asia Pacific] is booming," Warren Gill, a transportation geographer at Simon Fraser University said in an interview on Monday. "This doesn't mean that Europe is not having investment, and the port of New Jersey is still a big important port. But the great flows [of trade] are trans-Pacific now."

Gill said that leaders in the early 1900s talked about the 20th century as being "the Pacific century."

"This is really the big payoff of the Pacific century," he said.

On Monday, CP Rail became the latest to bet on increasing trade with Asia, launching a $160-million first phase to what could be a four part, $500 million expansion of its freight delivery capacity to the Port of Vancouver.

Fred Green, chief operating officer for CP Rail, said his company has all the track it needs to handle the demand for freight traffic to Eastern Canada and ports that serve the Atlantic.

"While you'll always be refining capacity modestly, my instinct is that the vast majority [of investment] for the foreseeable future is going to be driven by the Asian pull, with China obviously at the core of that," Green said.

Victoria, besides contributing $30 million to the Prince Rupert Port plan, has also in recent months committed some $2 billion toward transportation improvements in the province.

In the Lower Mainland, TransLink is also pouring some $3.9 billion into transportation.

Gordon Houston, CEO of the Vancouver Port Authority, said he has never seen governments, the transportation industry and even the public so interested in transportation and aware of how important a platform transportation is in supporting the economy.

"My huge concern is that we won't seize the opportunities being presented to us," Houston said.

"We're just going to disappoint future generations if we don't get it right this time."

Gill said shippers are beyond the point of worrying about fitting ships through the Panama Canal. Vessels now being built are so huge, their purpose is simply to shuttle shipping containers across the Pacific.

Canada, however, cannot be complacent, he added, because the country is still a minor player in the business of container shipping, compared with the gigantic container ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

"Los Angeles/ Long Beach is the grand daddy, the big dog as they say" Gill said.

He added that the Los Angeles to Chicago rail route for container traffic is "hugely efficient," because the Burlington Northern/Santa Fe railway has poured a lot of money into making it an effective intermodal transportation route.

Gill said the ports of Seattle and Tacoma are Vancouver's direct competitors, and they have invested huge amounts into capturing some of the inbound Asian trade. Tacoma in particular has invested money in buying "post Panamax" cranes, machines with a wide enough reach to pluck containers off the biggest of the ships that now carry shipping containers across the Pacific.

Gill said the money CP and CN are putting into increasing their capacity to carry freight in and out of B.C.'s ports is "absolutely necessary."

"You can have the ships come to the pier, but if you can't get their cargo off the pier and into the transportation system, you've got a real problem," he added.

Rapid pace of change:

There has been an amazing rush of transportation announcements in the past year. Here are some of the bigger ones:

B.C. government:

Plans to spend $1.99 billion for highway and bridge expansions over three to 10 years,

Highlights include:

- $200 million Cariboo Connector

- $670 million Kicking Horse Canyon

- $600 million Sea to Sky Highway improvements

- 100 million Lake Okanagan Bridge

Translink initiatives

In its three year plan/10 year outlook, Translink intends to spend $3.9 billion on rapid transit, roads and bridges

Highlights include:

- $1.7 billion RAV (Richmond Airport Vancouver) rapid transit line

- $600 million Golden Ears bridge crossing of Fraser River

- $60 million North Fraser Perimeter Road

- $60 million Coast Meridian Overpass

Port expansion projects and plans:

- $1 billion Deltaport 15 year capacity expansion plan

- $190 million Fraser Port container handling expansion

- $148 million Centerm container handling expansion

- $130 million Prince Rupert container phase one redevelopment

- $60 million Vanterm container handling expansion

Rail expansion:

- $160 million CP Rail phase one capacity expansion as part of a possible $500 million improvement plan.

- $130 million CN Rail capacity expansion