G 7 G Railway - Fort McMurray, Alberta to Delta Junction, Alaska

[samfp1943]

Yet another idea, and plan has surfaced.  The G 7 G Railway.  This one is apparently, seeking to resolve some of the Indigenous Peoples problems that have been aluded to in the concurreently running Thread on this Forum regarding the A 2 A  Railway Project.

See the G 7 G Railway's website linked @   https://g7grailway.com/

Possibly, what may be developing is a similar situation to the Central Pacific- Union Pacific rivalry?    Might even be, a newer Canadian version of the American Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 ? 

  What seems to be developing or already developed are competing plans over the [point to point}  Ft.McMurray Alberta to Delta Junction, Alaska. 

The   A2A Rwy seems  to have the 'edge' at this point(?)  

I'm  Not exactly sure, where the G 7 G Rwy is in this 'race' ?

A2A Rwy seems to be proposing a seemingly conventional style of construction; while the G7G Rwy  is proposing some what of a 'laundry list' of  advantages in their proposal:

• A purpose-built, double-track railway utilizing the latest technologies focusing on safety and environmental concerns
• Transportation of all commodities (crude oil, refined petroleum products, forestry, agriculture, minerals, potash, manufactured goods, etc.) to and from Pacific tidewater
• World market access for full value pricing
• Thousands of employment opportunities
• Economic diversification (power generation, manufacturing, etc.)
• The main rail line which will open opportunities for connecting spur lines to regional isolated communities and resources, as well as Canadian and/or other Alaskan ports
• Proper Indigenous recognition, relationship and respect
• {added}  Also noted is a heavy participation by associations or organizations of various indigenous people's groups.

  An advantage of the A2A Rwy would seem to be; its current 'financing' seems to be focused on the availability of mostly private funding spirces (?)

  The G7 G Rwy  reports on its website the following statement :"...Studies conducted by AECOM,  G7G’s engineering consultant, confirm that revenue from hauling crude oil alone does pay for this project. The Business Case calculations based on these studies indicate the project could be paid out in less than 20 years.  Additional revenue from other commodity shipments could shorten this payout period even more.  The predictability of revenue generated by transporting commodities, other than crude oil, is not reliable enough to finance the construction of a railway..."           

So the G 7 G 'financing' resources seem to remain 'undefined' at this point; Private sector or Governments ?

Also relevant would seem to be the competing interests of the U.S. and Canadian Governments (?)  there is a thread from August 2010 that discusses this area in a Thread @ http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/p/178468/1958679.aspx#1958679

Admitted that was WWII, and it was a common goal; "The construction of the "Al-Can Hwy"  but  the route unlock potentials for new sea ports and movement of minerals in the areas to be served by the new routes; which ever one wins the race to be built.

[kgbw49]

I would not be surprised if CN was involved in G7G, because an interchange point in Fort McMurray is a CN-only served interchange point.

A2A seems to be focused on Edmonton as the interchange point which is served by both CN and CP.

[cx500]

Two competing pipe dreams.  G7G just seems to be dreaming of a bigger pipe.

[samfp1943]

kgbw49

I would not be surprised if CN was involved in G7G, because an interchange point in Fort McMurray is a CN-only served interchange point.

A2A seems to be focused on Edmonton as the interchange point which is served by both CN and CP.

  Involvement of CN in either of the two plans would seem to be a 'given'?   

   The lines that are currently laid down in that area, at the very least, would seem to 'have' to be crossed at some point [Former Deese Lake <Line/ROW>; The Hay River line, and of course, the Fort McMurray line]

 Both competing plans seem to focus, currently, on the oil and gas potentials of the area.  Also the Province of Alberta is apparently actively engaged in promting explorations for a number of minerals thought to be in that area?

some of the listed minerals are :gold,silver, base metals,diamonds,lithium,uranium,potash, rare earth elements,vanadium.

shown listed on the linked website@  https://www.alberta.ca/exploring-for-minerals-in-alberta.aspx

Land in the area inclusive of NWT and adjacent Provinces is listed in the area of 440,000 aq miles (?) and a population just above some 41,000 (?)  .

 

 

[Fred M Cain]

samfp1943

Yet another idea, and plan has surfaced.  The G 7 G Railway.  This one is apparently, seeking to resolve some of the Indigenous Peoples problems that have been aluded to in the concurreently running Thread on this Forum regarding the A 2 A  Railway Project.

See the G 7 G Railway's website linked @   https://g7grailway.com/

<SNIP>

There really isn't much to this website.  A couple of people referred to the G7G railway on a parallel thread so I did a search.  This is all I could find.

They have a "home page" which tells you pretty much nothing.  There is a field to click on for additional informtion and, having done so, I was directed to an online contact form.  That's all there was.

I didn't proceed any further than that.

[Overmod]

Fred M Cain

I didn't proceed any further than that.

Did you not bother to read the Van Horne Institute paper on the Alberta-Alaska Railway (Feb 24 2016) or the extremely interesting legal proceedings -- that may or may not have something to do with the zeal to prosecute the alleged frauds at A2A?  There was considerable collateral on G7G, admittedly a great deal of it involving First Nations permissions, ownership, and prospective operation, as late as about 2018.  Someone might see if there are pages on the Wayback Machine with the older material.

If what is stated in the complaint is true, the principals and financiers who were setting up to finance development of G7G rather suddenly decided not to finance development any further but generated their own competing line... using the work product G7G had developed.  How true this actually is will be up to the courts... but whenever I see one of those Canadian 'number companies' involved with something of this prospective magnitude, I get very worried indeed.