June traffic another big downer on Canad border with 17% drop at toll crossings

February through April gave some signs of a possible bottom to the decline in traffic at the US-Canadian border toll facilities but June numbers were another heavy downer after a bad May with an 18% decline.

Traffic in June 2009 at ten reporting toll crossings was 2.59m v 3.11m June 2008, a decline of 17%.

Truck traffic was 483k this June compared with 640k last June, a decline of a quarter. The data are collected by the Public Border Operators Association which represents eleven toll crossings between Michigan and New York on the US side into Ontario on the Canadian sided.

One bridge Seaway International did not report its data by the deadline (and faces possible disciplinary action by the PBOA Rules Committee). We excluded last year's Seaway data by manipulating the Excel spreadsheet provided by PBOA. By counting Seaway in the total in June last year and crediting it with zero this year the PBOA spreadsheet produced some overdramatic doom & gloom reporting totals by reporters less accomplished than us in Excel.

Ambassador trucks down a third

Ambassador Bridge the largest truck crossing saw only 173k trucks this June v 257k in June 2008, a 33% drop. Cars at 332k were 12% down on 379k June 2008. Total traffic on the Ambassador was down 637k to 506k or 21%.

Competitive Blue Water Bridge upriver reported 110k trucks v 145k a year ago, down 24%.  Cars at 269k v 308k were down 13%. Total traffic at Blue Water was down 16%.

Detroit-Windsor Tunnel followed the same pattern with truck traffic off 43% and total traffic down 23%.

Niagara River

Niagara River crossings were off too, but not quite as drastically as those of the Detroit River.

Peace Bridge was 93k trucks to 113k last year, off 17%, total traffic was 491k v 569k, down 14%.

Queenston-Lewiston was 57k trucks v 67k, down 15%, total traffic 276k v 328k, off 16%.

Others

Sault St Marie reported 138k vehicles v 177k in June of 2008, down 22%.

Ogdensburg Bridge out east was a statistical outlier. It rang up a stunning 32% increase - repeat increase - in traffic, going from 50k last June to 66k this June.

The other operators will want to know what Ogdensburg's doing to attract all that increased traffic in these dismal economic times.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-07-10