Posted on 03/31/2019 3:05:31 PM PDT by KC_Lion
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is asking President Donald Trump to grant a presidential permit to extend the Alaska Railroad into Canada, supporting a Canadian company seeking to blaze a new path for Asian-bound products.
Linking the Alaska and North American rail systems, an idea more than a century old, would cut at least two days travel time for Canadian and Lower 48 cargo headed to the Far East because of shorter sea routes, supporters say.
“To me it was a no-brainer,” said Sean McCoshen, chief executive of Alberta to Alaska Railway Development Corp., speaking to the Senate Transportation Committee late last month.
“A2A will make Alaska’s ports the closest to Asia in North America,” Mead Treadwell, a former Alaska lieutenant governor and consultant to the Canadian company, told a reporter on Thursday.
....
Railcars would move overland to Cook Inlet, carrying passengers and freight. Cargo would include bitumen, the semi-solid, tar-like form of crude oil, potash used in fertilizer, and ore from mines.
Asian imports could be hauled into Canada and the Lower 48.
Estimates show the project would generate at least $4 billion in annual revenues, the company says.
The state would benefit by renting right-of-way to the company, and through tariffs paid for railcars traveling through Alaska, Treadwell said.
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
This is one of those projects that almost seems like a "no-brainer", but then I read that article too. Yikes!
Moreover, construction costs seem to be going up exponentially with time.
Lets make it happen!
“This is one of those projects that almost seems like a “no-brainer”, but then I read that article too. Yikes!”
That would be a great trip for the wife and I to take if they ever put it together. Even now, there seems to be a massive and interesting rail system in Canada...along with a separate system in Alaska (between Seward and Fairbanks).
Like the article said, it is a no-brainier. There is so much potential.
Yes, finally a direct land route to Alaska. The Scenery would be unmatched.
Actually Joe Hazelwood was found not guilty.
J
Over 50 years ago (golly!), as a kid my family traveled in to a lake in Canada by rail. You told the conductor which fishing camp you were going to, they stopped the train in the middle of the woods (a couple camp employees were waiting trackside), we disembarked, took a short hike, and then took fishing boats over to the camp. Heading home, the process was reversed, except the group leaving flagged down the train. We were told if no one was spotted at the stop, by the engineer / crew, the train went on through. One could also flag down the train at non-regular stops, so long as it was in a place where the engineer could see you from sufficient distance to comfortably stop.
How much freight transport there was along that line, I have no idea. (I just don’t remember!)
The good old days!
How would this affect the Alaskan Moose Butterfy?
Beautiful. I love riding in the dome passenger cars, but haven’t done it in decades.
“Just keeping a gravel road open 1/2 the year is an enormous challenge.”
The Alcan is only open half the year now? It used to be open all the time - and drive it at your own peril. Most people I knew in AK preferred to drive it in the winter because the iced-over roads were smoother than the gravel.
A railroad would be great, and a gorgeous trip.
I know that but he exhibited, shall we say, poor judgement. I doubt that he ever captained a supertakner again.
Seems a great idea to me!!!
Thank you for thinking of me!!!
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