Transportation

Quick facts

• $1.4 billion North/South Trade Corridor, Alberta’s top road construction priority is scheduled for Fall 2008 completion.  Major portions of the Highway 43 twinning project between Grande Prairie and Edmonton have been completed.
• Grande Prairie is on the route to the Alaska Highway. 
• Bighorn Highway (40) connects with the Yellowhead Highway, just east of entrance to Jasper National Park.
• Air Canada and West-Jet offer daily flights to major centres in Canada and around the world. Swanberg Air offers direct flights to Calgary and Vancouver. 
• Daily Greyhound Bus Services to regional communities and major centres
• City Transit Service

Grande Prairie Airport

The Grande Prairie airport, located 6.5 kilometres west of the downtown centre, operated and maintained by the Grande Prairie Airport Commission.  The airport provides daily scheduled Air Carrier Service, including aircraft refuelling, parking, maintenance and storage.  Other services include aircraft/helicopter commercial operations/charters, rental cars, taxi, limousine service and cafeteria amenities.  As well, air cargo can be shipped to any part of the world.

Air Canada, West-Jet, Swanberg Air, and Peace Air currently offer daily flights (Monday to Friday) to major centres in Alberta and BC including Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary.  Non-stop service between Grande Prairie and Calgary and Grande Prairie and Edmonton is provided. 

Airport Traffic Summary

Road

Building on the Alberta Advantage – The North South Trade Corridor

The Province of Alberta has made the $1.4 billion North-South Trade Corridor (NSTC) Alberta’s top road construction priority. Scheduled for a fall 2007 completion, the NSTC will have a tremendous impact on the Alberta economy.  The 1,175 kilometre network of multi-lane highways will provide for the fast, safe and efficient transportation of goods from the British Columbia border near Grande Prairie through Edmonton and Calgary to the CANAMEX Trade Corridor at Coutts on the Montana border. Highway 43 is the portion of this corridor that extends from the British Columbia border to west of Edmonton.

The Alberta leg of the CANAMEX (Canada-America-Mexico) highway will link the province to the U.S. and emerging markets as far south as Mexico, strengthening Alberta’s position as western Canada’s distribution hub for retail, wholesale and manufacturing sectors.

Improvements to Alberta’s roads include the twinning of 550 km of highway to create divided four-lane highways, the extension of Edmonton’s Anthony Henday Drive and improvements on Calgary’s Deerfoot Trail to increase free flow.

Highway 43 also goes west to Dawson Creek, BC and the start of the Alaska Highway going north, and the John Hart Highway going south to Prince George and the ports of Prince Rupert and Vancouver.

Highways 2, north of Grande Prairie, and 35, the Mackenzie Highway, lead to the Northwest Territories.

Highway 40 heads due south from Grande Prairie to connect with the Yellowhead Highway just east of the entrance to Jasper National Park.  Paving Highway 40 was completed in July 1996.

Rail

CNR provides freight service to Grande Prairie and the Peace Country.  The railway links Grande Prairie to the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Churchill, Thunder Bay, and Hay River in the Northwest Territories.

The Alberta Resources Railway runs between Grande Prairie and Hinton, Alberta, where it joins the CN mainline.  The railway was built to accelerate the development of natural resources such as coal, timber, and petroleum, in the area between Grande Prairie and the CN mainline.

Bus

Greyhound provides regularly scheduled passenger and courier service to the City’s bus depot.  A number of charter bus companies also operate out of Grande Prairie.