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Not a chance! Though it sounds interesting.... as you mentioned, it may be appx 1000 miles to Ft St John--but what about Vancouver/Seattle--those two are 2500 miles away! And there aint much between Anchorage/Fairbanks and Seattle/Vancouver (Yes, I know that these two sets of cities aren't exactly close, but it's done for a point). Also if we checked, I'll be the population of Seattle and Vancouver exceeds the population of the State of Alaska. Another thing to consider is that the ARR only runs daily passenger service from roughly Memorial Day to Labor Day--sure, it is a few weeks longer, but not much. The rest of the year, (Sep-May) the train runs from Anchorage to Fairbanks on Sat, and returns on Sun. Oh, by the way, it only has 3 cars during this time. Also, to bring the population issue back into consideration, the State of Alaska only has about 650K residents--for the entire state--which is 2.5 times the size of Texas! Now, having cast a gloom and doom on this entire subject, lets think about what would necessitate this. Passenger travel just AINT gonna cover the cost of this idea. And neither the US nor the Canadian govt is gonna foot the kinda bill this would entail w/o something in return. So, where does that leave us..... Freight or unit trains... and there are only two or three possibilities here. the first, and most obvious is oil. Ehhhhhh, probably not. Somehow I don't think the powers that be are gonna like the idea of an Ak-Canada-Lower48 rail link shutting down the pipeline and the Valdez oil terminal. Not too mention, that Canada already has their own strategic oil reserve. 2), coal. Once again, probably not, I think the Powder River has that game taken care of. 3) Intermodal..... A possibility--granted. However, that would require the construction of a new intermodal facility. Now this could be adventageous, as it might reduce some of the burden from other facilities in Ca, etc. However, the most likely places, Valdez, Whittier, Seward, etc, are all limited by local topography. Not to mention, that the narrow waterways in these areas may not be able to support the amount of sea traffic this would generate. Remember, Valdez is already swamped with tankers. There is another thought. In this era of mega-mergers, how long do you think the ARR would survive. Most ARR employees that I know hope that the ARR never extends to the Yukon border. They like who they are and who they work for. They don't really want to be employees of the CP/CN or any other Class I. Just the thoughts of a guy who lives in the area. Would it be nice to follow the RR from Anchorage/Fairbanks all the way to Washington.......? Yeah, it kinda would, but I don't see that one ever happening. But I've been wrong before... :-) John Clum Eagle River, Alaska
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