# Proposed railroad to Alaska



## steamtrain6868 (Mar 29, 2011)

I heard the right of way was graded but tracks were never laid


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## ALC Rail Writer (Mar 29, 2011)

Um... Okay.


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## steamtrain6868 (Mar 29, 2011)

http://alaskacanadarail.com/documents/ACRL%20Annex.pdf


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## steamtrain6868 (Mar 29, 2011)

Project Participants Alaska Canada Rail Link Project Management Team

Project ManagerKells Boland Assistant Project ManagerPeter Laight Project Manager, Ports AccessRoy Matson Project Communications Coordinator Amanda Leslie University of Alaska FairbanksPaul Metz Alaska Canada Rail Link Project Consultants

Market Research Team

Boston Consulting Group, Toronto, ON

Gartner Lee Ltd., Whitehorse, YT

GHK International, Vancouver, BC

Hatch Consulting, Mississauga, ON

Inukshuk Planning & Development, Whitehorse, YT

Klugherz & Associates, Seattle, WA

Landspoint Consulting, Calgary, AB

Lockhead Martin, Anchorage, AK

QGI Consulting, Edmonton, AB

Raw Materials Group, Stockholm, Sweden

Vector Research, Whitehorse, YT

Yukon Economic Development, Whitehorse, YT Technical/Engineering Research Team

Banjar Management Inc., Delta, BC

CH2M Hill Canada Ltd.

DKA Marketing, Vancouver, BC

EBA Engineering Consultants Ltd., Whitehorse, YT

HDR Engineering, Chicago, IL

Innovative Scheduling, Gainesville, FL

Pacific Contracting Co. LLC, Skagway, AK

UMA Engineering Ltd., Edmonton, AB

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Yukon Engineering Services, Whitehorse, YT Financial Advisory Team

Ernst & Young Orenda, Vancouver, BC

HDR/HLB Decision Economics Inc., Ottawa, ON

Macquarie North America Ltd., Vancouver, BC

Partnerships, B.C., Victoria, BC

Strategic Impacts Team

Information Insights Inc., Fairbanks, AK

Informetrica Ltd., Ottawa, ON

IRIS Environmental Systems Inc., Calgary, AB

Macleod Institute, Calgary, AB


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## ALC Rail Writer (Mar 30, 2011)

Guess it was just like hundreds of other projects... Never got off the starting block.

You know, not every rail project you find online is feasible. Most are garbage of studies and paid out contracts that never worked out.

If you are so concerned about this project as you were about the Russians laying rail between Tripoli and Rwanda, they have phone numbers for inquires. But seeing as those are probably five years old, you may just end up dialing a Doctor's office.


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## ALC Rail Writer (Mar 30, 2011)

Media Enquiries

Amanda Leslie, Communications Coordinator

210-212 Main St.

Whitehorse, Yukon, Y1A 2A9

Canada

Telephone: 867-456-3862

Cell: 867-334-4770

E-mail: [email protected]

Whitehorse Project Office

Kells Boland, Project Manger

210-212 Main St.

Whitehorse, Yukon, Y1A 2A9

Canada

Telephone: 867-456-3915

E-mail: [email protected]

Feel free, they even posted their cell numbers.


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## George Harris (Mar 30, 2011)

This line is a necessary start for the approach to the Bering Strait Tunnel. The BS Tunnel is another dream project that has had more retreads than a truck tire. Technologically the tunnel it quite feasible. However, the tunnel itself is the easy part. The railroads to connect it with anywhere else go through some of the emptiest and most inhospitable country on this planet, some of it quite mountainous as well. On the Siberian side there are long areas where the mountains drop straight into the ocean. Economically ths project is absolutely pointless. The projected container traffic can move much more cheaply by ship, and where is the demand for passenger trains that take a week to get between areas of reasonable population? Some flights betweeen US points and Asian point go over this area. I have seen it from the air. The territory is the very definition of uninhabited.

The railroad connecting Alaska to the US has had multiple incarnations. The most serious was in the early days of World War 2, but it was decided to build a road (the Alaska Highway) instead. The overland traffic volume on this route is so low that it was not even paved for many years.

If a railroad connecting Canada, and with it the Lower 48, to Alaska, is built in the foreseeable future the decision will politically based, not economic. Don't know if these are the same people or even the same route but several years back there was quite a bit of interest in building this line, including support from British Columbia, Yukon, and Alaska. At this point the traffic is easily handled by the ferry system.


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## Eric S (Mar 30, 2011)

steamtrain6868 said:


> I heard the right of way was graded but tracks were never laid


BC Rail (or perhaps a BC Rail predecessor; BC Rail is now part of CN) began constructing a line to Dease Lake, BC, in the 1970s, but stopped short and left a partially-finished line and partially-graded right-of-way. This line could have (possibly/maybe) been used as a "first step" in linking the Alaska Railroad with the Canadian (and, therefore, American) rail network. But, the entire BC Rail line (including the unfinished portion) lie within the province of British Columbia. The right of way (grading and tracks) would still need to be pushed the rest of the way north through the northern part of the province of British Columbia, through the territory of Yukon, and through the eastern part of the state of Alaska.


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## George Harris (Mar 30, 2011)

steamtrain6868 said:


> I heard the right of way was graded but tracks were never laid


Don't know if it is the same section, but some 40 to 50 years ago a 10 to 20 mile extension of the British Columbia Railroad, at that time called the Pacific Great Eastern, was graded but track never laid. This was called the Dease Lake extension if my memory is correct. An extension to Alaska from it was talked about, but not sure that the talkers were doing more than indulging in some verbal speculaton.


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## Eric S (Mar 30, 2011)

George Harris said:


> steamtrain6868 said:
> 
> 
> > I heard the right of way was graded but tracks were never laid
> ...


Looks like we were thinking of the same thing at about the same time.


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## steamtrain6868 (Mar 30, 2011)

Build it and the development will follow?? Will the railroad be a catlist for development? Just like the old frontier days?


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## Ispolkom (Mar 30, 2011)

steamtrain6868 said:


> Build it and the development will follow?? Will the railroad be a catlist for development? Just like the old frontier days?


I doubt it. Look at high-latitude railroads that have been built, like BAM. The railroad was poorly built and ended up costing vastly more than projected, and has carried little traffic. Why build a railroad to Alaska, when we don't have a railroad that Amtrak can use to Phoenix?


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## ALC Rail Writer (Mar 30, 2011)

steamtrain6868 said:


> Build it and the development will follow?? Will the railroad be a catlist for development? Just like the old frontier days?


Catalyst.

And we aren't in the old frontier days... We are in the age of bridges to nowhere...


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## George Harris (Mar 30, 2011)

Eric S said:


> George Harris said:
> 
> 
> > steamtrain6868 said:
> ...


Yes. I will assume that your dates are better than my guesses. My time frame gets a little warped occasionally.


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## Devil's Advocate (Mar 30, 2011)

Ispolkom said:


> I doubt it. Look at high-latitude railroads that have been built, like BAM. The railroad was poorly built and ended up costing vastly more than projected, and has carried little traffic. Why build a railroad to Alaska, when we don't have a railroad that Amtrak can use to Phoenix?


What's the story with that anyway? I remember reading that the host railroad stopped maintaining the portion of the ROW that allowed for simple through service from Amtrak, but as Phoenix still receives freight service it seems odd that it can't be served at all by Amtrak. I have a friend who lives in Phoenix but I can't figure out a way to visit by train that even begins to make any sense.


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## steamtrain6868 (Mar 30, 2011)

How can you build the BS tunnel under or over a Active fault line?


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## Green Maned Lion (Mar 30, 2011)

steamtrain6868 said:


> Build it and the development will follow?? Will the railroad be a catlist for development? Just like the old frontier days?


Have you ever been to this territory? I like it, but I like sleeping in a 40° bedroom. As for the other 99.9% of people, who like temperatures to be what the human body considers livable, nobody wants to live in that area. It would be like trying to develop an uninhabitable sandspit. No, I have no explanation for why it worked in Florida.

And... The BS Tunnel is aptly named. Leave it at that.


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## George Harris (Mar 31, 2011)

daxomni said:


> Ispolkom said:
> 
> 
> > I doubt it. Look at high-latitude railroads that have been built, like BAM. The railroad was poorly built and ended up costing vastly more than projected, and has carried little traffic. Why build a railroad to Alaska, when we don't have a railroad that Amtrak can use to Phoenix?
> ...


The line west out of Phoenix is out of service. It goes through miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. The line east out of Phoenix is still being used. Freight enters Phoenix from the east and leaves the same way regardless of its origin or destination.

If someone has 200 to 400 million dollars laying around that they want to burn, the west line could be put into a condition that it would be worthwhile to use it for passenger service.


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## jis (Mar 31, 2011)

steamtrain6868 said:


> How can you build the BS tunnel under or over a Active fault line?


Just like you build a BART tunnel and the Oakland Bay bridge across an active fault line and the numerous tunnels and viaducts on the Tokkaido Shinkansen across the MTL and ISTL fault lines. Of course not to mention that half the subway system in Tokyo and JR tunnels in the area are criss-crossed by relatively active fault lines, one of which broke to cause the Richter 7 aftershock in Kanto north of Tokyo after the off shore 9 event.

In general one designs to deal with a fault breakage realizing fully well that the fault crossing part of the tunnel may need to be rebuilt after such a breakage.


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## George Harris (Apr 2, 2011)

jis said:


> steamtrain6868 said:
> 
> 
> > How can you build the BS tunnel under or over a Active fault line?
> ...


The BART transbay tunnel has an earthquake movement joint in the tunnel on each end. There is not an equivalent joint in the track, itself. Earthquake movement is too infrequent to justify the maintenance such a joint would need.


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