Low-Toll Seaway

The Canadian and U.S. committees assigned to recommend a toll policy for the St. Lawrence Seaway last week plumped for low tolls aimed at attracting a high volume of traffic to the new deepwater channels when they open next year. Hearings on the toll rates will open in Ottawa and Washington in August; if both the U.S. and Canadian governments approve the rates as recommended, it will usually cost shipowners less in tolls to move their vessels the 369 miles from Montreal to Lake Erie than to go through the Panama or Suez Canals.

To pass through both the St. Lawrence River and the Welland Canal, a ship would be charged 6-c- for each gross registered ton, plus 42-c- for each short ton (2,000 Ibs.) of bulk cargo and 95-c- a ton for general cargo. A modern C-2 freighter carrying 4,000 tons of bulk cargo (ore, grain, pulpwood. scrap) and 4,000 tons of packaged merchandise would pay $5,955 for a one-way passage; a profitless trip in ballast would cost only $475 in tolls.

Because of its greater outlays in seaway construction, the Canadian seaway agency will retain 71% of all tolls for the St. Lawrence River; the U.S. will get 29%. The toll committees estimated that the rate structure they recommended will meet all operating costs of the seaway, pay off construction costs over a 50-year period.

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