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Transport in Saint Pierre and Miquelon

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Transport in Saint Pierre and Miquelon

While Saint Pierre and Miquelon has no railway, it has 114 km (71 mi) of highways plus 45 km (28 mi) of unpaved roads. Its only major harbour is at Saint-Pierre although there is a smaller harbour at Miquelon. The dependency has no merchant marine and two airports; the runway at Saint-Pierre Airport is 1,800 metres (5,910 ft) long, and at Miquelon Airport, 1,000 metres (3,280 ft).

Contents

Water transport

A regular passenger ferry service is provided between Saint-Pierre and the Canadian town of Fortune, Newfoundland and Labrador. The ferry does not carry vehicles.

From 2005 to 2009, Atlantic Jet provided ferry service to the islands from Canada. It was operated privately by SPM Express SA. It was replaced by MV Arethusa, but the ferry and service was terminated in 2010 when the island opted from a government run ferry service.

"Jeune France" is a smaller ferry serving seasonal local service between St. Pierre and Langlade. The ship arrived in 2012 replacing "Saint-George XII", but has been in dry dock since early 2015.

Several cruise ship lines visit Saint-Pierre. They dock 2 km northeast of downtown, near the end of the coastal road. Boats also provide access to Ile aux Marins.

Air transport

Air transport is provided by Air Saint-Pierre which connects Saint-Pierre with Miquelon and several Canadian cities.

Travel onto France involves transfer with other airlines via Montreal:

  • Air Canada
  • Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport
  • Air France
  • Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport
  • Air Transat
  • Bordeaux
  • Nantes
  • Toulouse
  • Paris
  • Lyon
  • Marseille
  • Nice
  • Corsair International
  • Paris-Orly Airport
  • Travelers can also fly to France (Paris) by flying with Air St. Pierre to Halifax International Airport and connect with Europe Airpost (seasonal route).

    The Saint-Pierre - Miquelon route is one of the shortest scheduled airline routes in the world in terms of distance or flight duration.

    Car transport

    Saint Pierre and Miquelon uses standard French vehicle registration plates, rather than issuing plates in the format of six inches high by twelve inches wide used by all other jurisdictions in North America. However, the islands do not follow the standard French numbering system. Until 1952, cars were simply numbered from 1 onwards, without any code to identify them as being from Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Beginning in 1952, they had serial numbers followed by the letters SPM, e.g. 9287 SPM. Since 2000, all numbers have begun with the letters SPM followed by a serial number and serial letter, e.g. SPM 1 A. Vehicles are mainly French or European. North American vehicles can also be found in recent years.

    Road signs are in French and are European influenced.

    References

    Transport in Saint Pierre and Miquelon Wikipedia