Ambassador Bridge Truck Crossings Plummet

(Today’s Trucking)

If this keeps up, there might not be a reason for a second bridge at the Windsor-Detroit Gateway after all.

Freight traffic over the world’s busiest border crossing declined by nearly 500,000 trucks through November from 2007.

According to reports, truck traffic on the Ambassador Bridge dropped 14.9 percent to 2.7 million from 3.2 million last year.

The stats were compiled by the Public Border Operators Association, which monitors crossings between Michigan and New York with the province of Ontario.

The Ambassador is forging ahead with a twin span between Windsor and Detroit. At the same time governments on both sides of the border are in the final stages of planning a new bridge abut 3 km downriver of the Ambassador.

The declining trend has been similar at other major Ontario-U.S. border crossings.

The second-busiest crossing, the Blue Water Bridge at Sarnia-Port Huron, Mich. saw traffic total 1,475,979 trucks through November, off 1.75 percent.

At the Peace Bridge between Buffalo and Fort Erie, Ont., declined by 1.78 percent.