Planning the Prince Rupert Container Terminal

The port city of Prince Rupert is located on British Columbia's rugged North West coast. Its strategic Pacific Rim location offers shippers a shorter sailing time to Asia compared to both Vancouver and Seattle/Tacoma. The Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA) is currently converting an existing break bulk terminal to a new use as an intermodal container terminal. Phase 1 is now underway and is expected to accommodate up to 500,000 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) per year. Currently planned expansions could bring the total throughput capacity to some 1.5 million TEUs per year. This facility is the first major shipping terminal to be built in northern British Columbia in more than two decades and the first container facility to be built outside the Vancouver geographical area. Although the local community is small and generates little local container traffic itself, the port is served by an excellent Class 1 mainline rail connection to eastern Canada and the U.S. Midwest. This railway currently operates with excess capacity, providing the opportunity for rail bound container cargo to bypass port and rail congestion experienced at other West Coast ports. This unique combination of factors led to an unusual operational model where almost 100% of the cargo is destined for intermodal rail. As a result, a unique planning process was used for this prototype facility, focusing on the interrelationship between vessel and rail schedules.