Safe and Cost Effective
The Seaway provides a transportation route that is:
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The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System - A Vital Waterway
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A Cost-Competitive Transportation Route
Several Great Lakes ports are closer to European markets than East Coast or Gulf ports are, saving shippers time and money:
- Baltimore, Maryland to Liverpool, England: 3,936 miles (6,334 km)
Via the Seaway, from Detroit, Michigan: 3,673 miles (5,911 km) - New York to Rotterdam: 3,824 miles (6,154 km)
From Norfolk: 4,032 miles (6,489 km)
From New Orleans: 5,567 miles (8,959 km)
Via the Seaway, from Montreal: 3,612 miles (5,813 km)
Transportation studies show that:
- The Seaway is especially cost-competitive for shipping steel, heavy lift and project cargoes to and from Europe
- Great Lakes ports have lower port costs than competing ocean ports for the handling, wharfage, dockage and stevedoring of grain, iron ore, steel coils and machinery
- Steel shippers save from $3 (U.S.) to nearly $50 (U.S.) a ton by routing through Great Lakes ports rather than through east coast or Gulf ports
- Stevedoring costs for steel products tend to average about $2.20 (U.S.) a metric ton lower at Great Lakes ports
A Shipping Gateway to One of the World's Richest Regions
The St. Lawrence Seaway system serves a region that:
- Is home to more than 90 million people (nearly one-quarter of North America's population)
- Creates more than a third of the continent's gross national product
- Produces two-thirds of Canada's industrial output
- Grows almost half the soybean and corn in the U.S.
- Accounts for some 40% of U.S. manufacturing
An Environmentally Friendly Transportation Route
Using the Seaway saves energy in comparison to rail, highway and air transportation. A ship can move a ton of freight up to 500 miles on one gallon of fuel. A single laker can carry as much cargo as 225 rail cars, guaranteeing highly competitive unit costs.
An environmental impact study conducted by the St. Lawrence Economic Development Council in 2000, found that the marine industry remains the most environmentally-friendly transportation mode, even over short distances.
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MARINE TRANSPORTATION IS SAFER
- Only one marine accident is recorded for every 13.7 rail accidents and 74.7 truck accidents.
- Only one marine spill is recorded for every 10 rail spills and 37.5 truck spills.
- Transport Canada reported 576 fatal accidents involving commercial vehicles on Canadian highways in 2003.
- By contrast, 27 individuals died at sea in 2004.
MARINE TRANSPORTATION IS ECONOMICAL
- Shipping by water requires only 10% to 20% of the energy required by road.
- A ship can move a tonne of freight up to 800 kms (500 miles) on 4 litres (1 gallon) of fuel.
- Put another way, on a single litre of fuel, one tonne of freight can travel 240 km by ship. By train, the distance drops to less than 100 kms and by truck, to less than 30 kms.
- Seaway-max ships that are twice as long and half as wide as a football field carry cargoes equivalent to the loads of 870 trucks or 225 rail cars.
MARINE TRANSPORTATION IS ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND
- Waterborne shipping is by far the most benign mode of transport for the earth's ecosystem. It carries 3/4 of the planet's international trade.
- Ships emit one tenth the greenhouse gas of trucks and half that of trains (in grams/tonne-kilometre).
- As well as saving on costs, superior fuel efficiency in the marine mode translates into fewer emissions. In 1997, marine transport was responsible for 4.7% of Canadian greenhouse gas production, while heavy trucks produced 27% of such emissions in Canada.
- The 2005 Natural Resources Canada study, Energy Efficiency Trends in Canada, 1990 to 2004 provides data on cargo tonne-kilometers carried and greenhouse gas emissions by transport mode. These data show that greenhouse gas emissions per tonne-kilometre for trucking have fallen from 7.4 times as high as marine in 1990 to 7.1 times as high in 2003. Trucking is improving in GHG emissions but ships are still far ahead.
- A comprehensive OECD study shows that, for a wide range of pollutants, the marine mode is much more environmentally friendly than trucking. Some clear conclusions can be drawn by comparing the data presented. Data on air pollution permit the most straightforward comparison. Despite substantial variation among the estimates within each transport mode, trucks are clearly much more polluting than trains or ships. This applies across all pollutants (CO, CO2, HC, NOX, SO2, particulates and VOC). The data suggest that rail may be more harmful than marine transport, however, this is much less clear. The use of different methodologies to derive the emission factors may well be more significant than any possible generalisation about the differences between marine and rail transport based on these data.
- Very low noise levels, coupled with a safety and spill experience that is superior to that of road and rail, make the Seaway a substantial contributor to the health and welfare of the Canadian and American people.
BIG CAPACITY, BIG ECONOMIC IMPACT
- The Seaway is a vital artery for international trade, empowering industries throughout the heartland of North America to participate competitively in a wide range of export markets.
- More than 2.2 billion tonnes of cargo, estimated at $265 billion Canadian, has moved to and from Canada, the United States and nearly 50 other nations since the Seaway opened in 1959.
- 43.482 million metric tonnes of cargo, mostly grain, iron ore, coal, steel and other bulk, passed through the Seaway during the 2004 navigation season, representing a cargo value of $7 billion.
- 4,090 vessels passed in 2004 through the Montreal/Lake Ontario and Welland Canal sections of the Seaway.
- 25 % of Seaway traffic moves to and from overseas ports, especially Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The Seaway remains the most direct route to central North America from many European ports.
- The Seaway is responsible for approximately 36,000 direct and indirect jobs in Canada and 150,000 in the United States. Maritime commerce on the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway System annually generates more than $4.3 billion in personal income, $3.4 billion in transportation-related business revenue, and $1.3 billion in federal, state and local taxes.
- Almost 400 million tonnes of cargo travel each year by water in Canada - more cargo than any other single mode.
- The value of goods transported by water total $80 billion annually.
- Forecasts call for marine traffic volumes to triple within the next 20 years as global trade increases.
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