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[Fcexpress80]

My wife and I visited this region and had a chance to drive these freeways last week.  Several comments. 

The Ok Connector is an outstanding road that rivals anything in the US Interstate system!  It is unfortunate that it is unfinished to its original planned connection to the Coquihalla about 30 km south of Merritt, BC.  As a compromise, BC widened the Princeton/Kamloops road to 4 lanes into Merritt.  While this brings people to Merritt, it lengthens the trip from points west to Kelowna, BC.  It has been stated that the Merritt populace objected to the original plans because it would have many people bypassing their town on the way to the Okanagan.  Have they not heard of Outlet Malls?  Build them and they will come.  Meanwhile, I would encourage the BC Trans ministry to eventually complete this road as originally designed.

The Coquihalla Highway is decent freeway, also.  The rugged geography south of Merritt does command some steep (8%) grades and curves that made us slow down, at times.  It is evident that this portion of highway is susceptible to avalanches in a great many places near the Coquihalla Summit.  The freeway north of Merritt is well engineered to "interstate highway standards" to Kamloops.

Because through traffic from Vancouver to Kamloops and on to Calgary is most likely to travel this road, I would propose this be designated the Trans-Canada route.  Highway numbers remain the same but TC-1 through the Fraser Canyon becomes BC-1 and the Coquihalla becomes TC/Yellowhead 5.

[agentsteel53]

Have they not heard of Outlet Malls?  Build them and they will come.

yuck!  what is this, the United States??

[xonhulu]

Because through traffic from Vancouver to Kamloops and on to Calgary is most likely to travel this road, I would propose this be designated the Trans-Canada route.  Highway numbers remain the same but TC-1 through the Fraser Canyon becomes BC-1 and the Coquihalla becomes TC/Yellowhead 5.

Respectfully disagree a little.  I've always thought the whole Trans-Canada "main route" all the way across Canada should be designated with the same number, which might as well be 1 given that most of the TC already has that designation.  But I do agree with you that the TC should be shifted onto the Coquihalla, so I'd see 1 moved off the Hope-Cache Creek road and onto the freeway.  That would require a new number for the old road, but plenty are available in BC.  And then 97 can just have the Cache-Creek to Kamloops stretch to itself under this scenario.

This is probably getting off topic a bit, but anyone else want to comment on why Ontario, Quebec, NB and Nova Scotia didn't change their sections of the TC to route #1?  I realize they may already have had route 1's, but it seems to me that unifying the closest thing Canada has to a national highway under a single number would be worth the minor inconvenience of lesser routes getting new numbers.

[Truvelo]

Maybe the toll for using the Coquihalla had something to do with keeping the TCH off it? Now that the tolls have gone it would make sense to assign the TCH to the best quality route.

[ghYHZ]

Maybe the toll for using the Coquihalla had something to do with keeping the TCH off it? Now that the tolls have gone it would make sense to assign the TCH to the best quality route.

The TCH is tolled in Nova Scotia through the Cobequid Pass:

https://www.cobequidpass.com/Default.aspx

It was also tolled in New Brunswick and I guess you can say it's "tolled" on the Confederation Bridge, Northumberland Ferries and the Marine Atlantic Ferries to Newfoundland.

[Alps]

This is probably getting off topic a bit, but anyone else want to comment on why Ontario, Quebec, NB and Nova Scotia didn't change their sections of the TC to route #1?  I realize they may already have had route 1's, but it seems to me that unifying the closest thing Canada has to a national highway under a single number would be worth the minor inconvenience of lesser routes getting new numbers.

Yeah, it's getting off-topic JUST a bit. The TCH discussion has been moved to its own thread: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=5180.0

[Alps]

The discussion of renumbering has been moved to Fictional Highways.

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=5579.0