16 Facts About Trans-Canada Highway

Trans-Canada Highway is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast.

Unlike the Interstate Highway System in the United States, the Trans-Canada Highway system has no national construction standard, and was originally built mostly as a two-lane highway with few multi-lane freeway or expressway sections, similar to the older United States Numbered Highway System.

In Quebec, most sections of the TCH network overlap with the province's Autoroute freeway system, resulting in the Trans-Canada Highway following freeways throughout most of Quebec as well.

Currently, over half of the mainline Trans-Canada Highway is still in its original two-lane state, with no bypasses, interchanges and few passing opportunities.

Trans-Canada Highway is not always the preferred route between two cities, or even across the country.

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In Kenora, the Trans-Canada Highway designation includes both the main route through the city's urban core, and the 33.

The Trans-Canada Highway assumes the name as it traverses Montreal as an elevated freeway.

New Brunswick was the first province where the main route of the Trans Canada Trans-Canada Highway was made entirely into a four-lane limited-access divided highway.

Usage of miles instead of kilometres at both designations dates back to when the Trans-Canada Highway was completed in 1962, prior to metrication in Canada.

The Yellowhead Trans-Canada Highway is most well known for passing through Jasper National Park in Alberta, where it crosses the Continental Divide through its namesake Yellowhead Pass.

Southern Ontario Trans-Canada Highway route is even more abstract than the northern ones, as it uses four different provincial highways, and is largely non-functional as a major long distance corridor due to its roundabout route and the complete avoidance of the Toronto area.

Early on, much of the route of the Trans-Canada Highway was first explored in order to construct the Canadian Pacific Railway in the late 19th century, a route which much of the mainline TCH route later ended up following.

Many sections of Trans-Canada Highway were upgraded to freeway standards during that era of highway construction.

In 2000 and 2001, Transport Canada considered funding an infrastructure project to have the full Trans-Canada system converted to limited-access divided highways.

In 2019 the Regina Bypass opened, resulting in the Trans-Canada Highway being realigned around the city, and bypassing a section of heavily-signalized arterial road on Victoria Avenue.

In 2012, a series of free public electric vehicle charging stations were installed along the main route of the highway by a private company, Sun Country Trans-Canada Highway, permitting electric vehicle travel across the entire length, as demonstrated by the company's president, Kent Rathwell, in a publicity trip from St John's, NL to Victoria, BC in a Tesla Roadster.