Transportation in North America is performed through a variedtransportation system, whose quality ranges from being on par with a high-quality European motorway to an unpaved gravelled back road that can extend hundreds of miles. There is also an extensive transcontinental freight rail network, but passenger railway ridership is lower than in Europe and Asia.
The railroad network of North America (usingstandard gauge) is extremely extensive, connecting nearly every major and most minor cities. The United States, Canada, and Mexico have an interconnected system withrailheads stretching fromHay River, Northwest Territories, Canada, toTapachula, Mexico, and onVancouver Island. The state government of Alaska also operates theAlaska Railroad, which does not connect to the North American network. In Canada, rail lines fromLabrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador, toSept-Îles, Quebec, also are not linked to the North American network.
There have beenproposals to link the island ofNewfoundland to the mainland of North America via a 17 km-long railtunnel under theStrait of Belle Isle, which would also carry automobile traffic onflatcars, similar to theChannel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France. This has stalled due to the lack of a large road network and a lack of rail lines inLabrador, and the remoteness of the area on both sides of the strait inNewfoundland and Labrador. Another issue to contend with is that Newfoundland had abandoned itsCanadian National/Newfoundland Railway lines (3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge until 1988–1990), turning it into theNewfoundland T'Railway, arail trail spanning the entire island. An automobile tunnel would be most likely unfeasible due to the length needed to cross the strait, and the difficulties of removingautomobile exhaust and bringing in fresh air via large circulation fans throughout the tunnel.
Although Alaska is not connected to the North American rail network, there have been proposals to connect it viaBC Rail's incomplete but graded rail extension toDease Lake, where the rails have been laid toJackson, British Columbia.[1] The only way for rail-based equipment to enter or leave Alaska is viarail ferry fromSeattle, Washington. The only railway crossing the Alaska border is theWhite Pass and Yukon Route, anarrow-gaugeheritage railway linkingWhitehorse, Yukon, withSkagway, Alaska.
The currentrailheads or endpoints of the rail network are, in the north, atHay River, Northwest Territories (the northernmost part of the North American rail network, operated byCN),Jackson, British Columbia (formerlyBC Rail),Lynn Lake andChurchill, Manitoba (Hudson Bay Railway),Moosonee (Ontario Northland Railway),Chibougamau andMatagami, Quebec (also CN). In the west, the railheads are at Vancouver, British Columbia,Prince Rupert, British Columbia (CN), withferry service toVancouver Island for the railways linkingNanaimo,Esquimalt, andVictoria. In the east, the North American network extends toHalifax, andSydney, Nova Scotia.
In the south, the rail lines terminate atPort of Chiapas, andCiudad Hidalgo, with a shortdual-gaugespur line to the border city ofCiudad Tecún Umán, Guatemala.
In April 2007 the Russian government announced that it was considering building a rail tunnel under theBering Strait betweenChukotka and Alaska. The tunnel, as projected, would be 60 miles (100 km) long and would include oil and gas pipelines,fiber optic cables and power lines.[2] The tunnel project was estimated to cost $65 billion and take 15–20 years to build. In addition to the Russian government, sponsors of the project apparently includeTransneft and RAO United Energy Systems.[3]
Mexico has a connection toCentral America, but it is abreak of gauge, since Mexico uses1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge, while Guatemala and Central America usenarrow gauge914 mm (3 ft). Aside from a short spur line linkingborder city ofCiudad Tecún Umán,Guatemala, the entire nation is on914 mm (3 ft) gauge.
South of Guatemala, there are numerous breaks of gauge, such as1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) (withHonduras), andEl Salvador (which uses the same 914 mm gauge of rail, but is currently closed, with some sections abandoned and unusable).Nicaragua has also closedits rail network in 1996, though the majority of it was1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge, with some1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) lines along the Atlantic Coast.Costa Rica'srailroads are of1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge, along with a private600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) gauge railroad at 3.5 km in length. Therailroads ofPanama are connected to Costa Rica.[citation needed] The country had two gauges: originallybroad gauge1,524 mm (5 ft), which was converted tostandard gauge (1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)) in 2000, andnarrow gauge (914 mm). Like the situation with roads, theDarién Gap is a formidable obstacle to railroads, and no railways cross it into South America.
The continent's roads are of varying quality, withdivided highway standards in some areas but poor-quality gravel or unpaved roads in others. The road network extends fromPrudhoe Bay, Alaska, andAnchorage, Alaska, in the extreme northwest, toSydney, Nova Scotia,Cartwright, Newfoundland and Labrador,Blanc Sablon andNatashquan, Quebec, in the extreme east, all the way toYaviza, Panama, in the extreme south. It does not connect with the South American road network due to theDarién Gap.
Some roads are seasonal, such asice roads that cover frozen bodies of water,winter roads which cross otherwise impassable wetlands only in cold weather, and unpaved mountain roads that turn to mud in the spring. The road network does not reach all settlements, and some remotearctic andsubarctic communities are only accessible by seasonal road, open land, sea, or air transport. SomeNorth American islands are served only byferries or private boat. Notable disconnected islands include theWest Indies,Vancouver Island,Newfoundland (island),Martha's Vineyard,Nantucket, and theCanadian Arctic Archipelago. Some roads and some entire localities areintentionally car-free.
The United States road network is the largest in the world, with 6.4 million km (4 million mi) of roadways. 75,360 km (46,830 mi) of those areInterstate Highways, and around another 200,000 km (120,000 mi) areU.S. Highways. The Interstate Highway system is almost completely composed of multi-lane,dual-carriagewayfreeways. The contiguous United States are also connected to its exclave, Alaska, via theAlaska Highway, which links the state toYukon Territory,British Columbia, and theLower 48 states. The continental United States is disconnected from the state ofHawaii and variousinsular areas in the Caribbean and Oceania.
Many settlements in Alaska are disconnected from the continental road network except by ferry or boat, including the capitalJuneau,Sitka,Kodiak,Bethel,Nome, andUtqiaġvik.[4] TheDalton Highway connects the mainland viaFairbanks with the otherwise remotePrudhoe Bay, Alaska on theNorth Slope as a service road for theTrans-Alaska Pipeline.
TheTrans Canada Highway spans the country along with its auxiliary branches. TheYellowhead Highway branches to the north, and theCrowsnest Highway, acts as a southern spur or shortcut to traveling fromAlberta toBritish Columbia across theRocky Mountains. Canada's national highways are similar to theUS Route network, as it is mostly two-lane without freeway sections, aside from in and near large population centres, such asMontreal,Calgary, andEdmonton. Canada and the United States have also built the vitalAlaska Highway, linkingAnchorage, Alaska (and the rest of the state) to Canada and the rest of the United States.
Although Canada does not have a federal-level network of expressways, provinces fromOntario toNova Scotia are inter-linked by provincial-level freeways: Ontario's400-series highways network,Quebec'sAutoroute network,New Brunswick's upgrades to its portions of the Trans-Canada Highway, and Nova Scotia's100-series highways. These expressways are the provincial equivalents to the United States'Interstate Highway system. The only gap in this inter-provincial expressway network (one can travel from Windsor to Halifax using expressways, but this involves crossing into the United States to use their Interstate Highway network, and back into Canada) betweenWindsor, Ontario, andHalifax, Nova Scotia, is alongRoute 185/Autoroute 85, which is being twinned and upgraded to become a fully divided expressway. This gap is quite busy and is expected to be upgraded by 2026.
Ontario is the only province to contain its own system ofcounty roads, which are controlled and maintained bythe counties, districts, and regions of Ontario.
Provinces fromManitoba west have their own networks of highways (the majority of which are not expressways or divided highways), with Winnipeg also having its ownWinnipeg City Routes. Alberta has its own small but growing inter-connected network of divided highways and freeways, such asAlberta Highway 1,Highway 2, andHighway 16. British Columbia also has a small network of freeways linking Vancouver toKamloops, viaHighway 1, andHighway 5, formerly atoll road.
In 2004 the provincial government studied the feasibility of aNewfoundland-Labrador fixed link joining the island ofNewfoundland to the mainland of North America via a 17 km-long rail tunnel under theStrait of Belle Isle, which would also carry automobile traffic on flat cars, similar to theChannel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France. This has stalled due to the lack of a large road network and a lack of rail lines inLabrador, and the remoteness of the area on both sides of the strait inNewfoundland and Labrador. Another issue to contend with is that Newfoundland had abandoned its segments of itsCN/Newfoundland Railway lines (3 ft 6 in or 1,070 mm narrow-gauge) in 1988–1990, turning it into theNewfoundland T'Railway, arail trail spanning the entire island. An automobile tunnel would be most likely unfeasible due to the length needed to cross the strait, and the difficulties of removingautomobile exhaust and bringing in fresh air via large circulation fans throughout the tunnel. Labrador is, however, connected to the continental road network via theTrans-Labrador Highway.
Mexico also has a very large road network, 323,977 km worth of roads. Of these, 96,221 km are paved (this is including 6,335 km of expressways) The remainder (227,756 km worth) is unpaved. Since 1991, Mexico has been buildingtoll roads that link its major cities together. Currently, there are 6,335 km worth of toll freeways in the country, with the numbering scheme ofn-D (n being the number of the road bypassed, such as 45, with toll freeway as 45-D, meaning 45 Diversion).
Central America's roadway network continues, linking every major city and capital, via thePan-American Highway, which continues throughPanama, across the Panama Canal, toYaviza, Panama. It is separated from South America by the largeDarién Gap.
Waterways were the primary method of transportation of people and goods, and used bynative aboriginal people indugout canoes andkayaks.
The waterways remained important sinceChristopher Columbus arrived in 1492, right up until the First World War. Though their use has diminished somewhat with the arrival of rail transportation, theInterstate Highway/400 series highways networks of America and Canada, and with the debut of air travel, they are still widely used for transporting goods from the AmericanMidwest tooverseasmarkets.
The cities ofDuluth, Minnesota, andThunder Bay, Ontario (to some extent,Chicago, Illinois as well) are the most inlandseaports/deepwater ports in the world, being well over 2000 miles from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, yet they still can cater tocargo ships, thanks to theSt. Lawrence Seaway,Welland Canal andSoo Locks, ajoint-venturebinational system ofdams,locks, andcanals built by Canada and the United States in 1959. TheMississippi/Missouri River system also sees a large amount ofoceanbound ship traffic from cities such asSt. Louis,Kansas City, andNew Orleans.
Churchill, Manitoba, also serves as a minor port forgrain andwheat loaded viarailroad cars, and loaded onto ships bound for Europe at theintermodal facilities in that town.
The nation ofPanama currently operates one of the world's busiest and most familiar waterways, thePanama Canal. This canal cuts through theIsthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, shaving off more than 9,000 miles (14,000 km) for ships, instead of having them travel around the tip ofCape Horn in South America. A ship travelling fromNew York City toSan Francisco would be roughly 9,500 km (5,900 mi) in distance, while a trip around Cape Horn would be 22,500 km (14,000 mi) in length. The Canal functions similarly to theSuez Canal inEgypt.
Currently,car ferry andrail ferry service between New York City, New York/New Orleans, Louisiana/Miami, Florida, United States, andHavana, Cuba, is suspended, due to the ongoingembargo by theUnited States against Cuba. There is however, rail ferry service betweenWhittier, Alaska, andPrince Rupert, British Columbia (the AquaTrain, operated by theAlaska Railroad) andWashington state (Seattle), and a ferry to and fromMobile, Alabama, and thePort of Ponce Railroad inPonce, Puerto Rico. Regular ferry service also linksVancouver Island and isolatedSunshine Coast communities to the mainland and to Alaska. There is also automobile ferry service betweenNova Scotia andNewfoundland and Labrador, fromQuebec toLabrador, and between Labrador and the island ofNewfoundland.
Air travel first entered as a viable alternative totranscontinental railroads, and to the then-primitive (or non-existent) road networks that crossed the United States and Canada in the early 1930s, but truly increased in popularity after theSecond World War.
Most of the continent's busiest airports are in the United States. In fact the U.S. has 9 of North America's 10 busiest airports, including the world's busiest,Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport inAtlanta. The busiest airport in North America outside the United States isToronto Pearson International Airport, inToronto, Canada.