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Alaska Railroad considering commuter service
To paraphrase that progressive, forward thinker, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin: “that train must be stopped in its tracks!”
If I’m not mistaken I think that the Alaskan Railroad has a direct rail link to and station at the Anchorage Int. Airport. That might help make this commuter service more useful!
I agree with Mr. Hays, I think Budd RDCs would be a good match, but Nippon Sharyo’s new North American FRA/EPA compliant commuter DMU would be a good new buy. The railroad however ma have spare rolling-stock that they can use, which would be the fastest and cheapest route.
It reads like a commentary more regarding depressed revenues than it does progressive thinking and I imagine that generating any sort of traffic beats sitting on one’s hands.
The area being discussed - Wasilla to Anchorage - actually isn’t that heavy of a snow area. However, it is very windy at times with blowing snow, and can have a great deal of fog. The Iditarod technically starts in Anchorage, but often is moved by highway to Wasilla or north for the actual run because of no snow. However, having driven the freeway between Anchorage and Wasilla in a mix of freezing rain and snow, I would certainly prefer the train. Besides the freeway, there is basically only the old highway as a road alternative. An issue is getting to and from the stations.
The tourist season for AKRR is late May to early September, so plenty of equipment is available during the time they are discussing. The equipment would be their normal coaches pulled by one or more of their SD70macs, so no power shortage. Why buy more stuff when it is just sitting around? The AKRR parks some of their locomotives during the winter when the rock trains don’t run, so those are available just like the passenger cars. Actually, they still run Anchorage-Fairbanks on weekends with 3 or 4 cars, so it actually sounds like a plan to use the weekend train on the commuters runs, thus saving having to shut them down for the weekdays and then having them available again for the weekends.
During summer, the cars are used heavily and no extra equipment would be available. Also, this route can see as many as 10 freights a day as well as a similar number of passenger trains, so trying to run summer commuter trains just as a large number of freight and passenger trains are running in and out of Anchorage becomes an issue. Most mornings will see three to five passenger trains leave Anchorage station when the commuter train would be arriving, and several rock trains are also scheduled through the terminal early mornings during summer. This makes summer a problem for the operation.
I don’t know if there would be enough demand, but it would be an interesting test as traffic can be bumper to
Guse,
A disqualifier glares off the page, diminishing if not cancelling, your “odds are” bet’s chance of collecting.
Further, a dimmer disqualifier shows your fool-hardyness or lack of experience/knowledge.
You tested me with that “fully tested off road stump jumpers” Never heard of a stump-jumper. could it be a proposed Winter Olympic sport? What is a stump jumper…?
And yes, the AK RR has cars to spare in the non- tourist season.
And yes, the ARR has been running passenger service through snow for a century, nearly. Monster snows like we have on my railroad over Donner, well… mine in SP passenger service, aren’t common…what accumulates are (relatively) much smaller snow accumulations layered on that doesn’t melt until break-up…nuthin’ melts.
The dimmer “disquali…” has to do with your remark about “terrified of that bear or moose on the road.”
If you’re not, what comes to mind is,
"there are bold (bush or crop-dusting) aircraft pilots and there are old (prev. parenthesis…) but there are few bold and old…(parenthesis content again). pilots. May they R. I. P
The blinding glare of disqualification is that you said “everybody has several snow"MOBILES,” oops!
Having enough to be useable when necessary or… for recreation, hunting, but a casual “several.” No.
Snow blindness award granted 'cause Alaskans don’t identify those things as snow-mobiles; they are what Alaskans call “snow machines.”
You Didn’t Know.
Look at the ledger of profits and losses. The Alaska Railroad is apparently hurting. Concentrate on what makes profit and everything else will take care of itself.
Then there is the snow problem, as the commuter lines and Amtrak in the lower 48 have clearly demonstrated. Alaska gets snow. The commuter and Amtrak equipment are clearly not up to the task of dealing with anything but perfect sunshine. What makes anybody think a commuter railroad in Alaska will be able to operate from September 1 to May 31? Freight locomotives can deal with snow. Custom built commuter stuff can’t. Odds are everybody has several snowmobiles and fully equipped off road stump jumpers. That is how they get around now. That is how they plan on getting around in the future. The ones that don’t probably moved in recently and are probably terrified of that moose or bear on the road.
Mr. Guse, if anybody is prepared to handle snow, it’s Alaskans. I’m just curious as to why they don’t plan on offering service during the summer. Are they afraid it would cause to many constraints on the tourist trains that run during that time period, e.g. lack of capacity? I hope the airport station is included in that plan too as it doesn’t have regular passenger service.
I agree with William Hays about this idea. Find quality used RDC’s and refurbish , if necessary. It sounds like they might have to buy some of their old equipment back, but if it works out, it would be worth it. Also, AAR will be shooting themselves in the foot if they don’t offer service during the summer. Why would anyone elect to commute via train for only three quarters of the year?
could the state not subsidize some of the cost as any state in the lower 48 w/commuter services does? it would reduce greenhouse gases and take lots of cars off the road.
ARR used to have RCD(s?) for a local outback service, but I’m not sure they kept these. They have dozens of passenger cars sitting around after the summer tourist season, so they might as well put them to work.
NO, this is too progressive and forward thinking. Therefore it must be stopped!
There are lots of used, refurbishable RDCs available in Moncton, NB. Maybe even in Oregon (ex-ARR units). I’d start out on-the-cheap and see how it goes.
Dr. Jennings is absolutely right. I can second all of that having been there twice myself.
@DR BARTON JENNINGS - Thanks, that gives a lot of context that makes the decisions more explainable.
I agree with others here that it seems like a commuter service that only runs half the year, and never during weekends, isn’t going to be terribly popular, but I can see the constraints the ARR is under from your comment. If the eventual aim is to have the state directly take it over and subsidize it, perhaps at that point the state can buy new equipment they maintain themselves, and run the service full time.
J. Guse: Amazing! Emily Moser posted, on her “IRidetheHarlemLine” site, a picture of a M-NR DM unit with a pilot plow! Are they learning? Some great coverage of the ARR on her site, too.
“Progressive” = “Forward Thinking”? Not in my book.
Mr. Turon: EPA-compliant anything is not necessary in Alaska. 97.8% of their “Greenhouse Gasses” are emitted by moose farts. An EMD SD70, with two commuter cars, would be overkill, any time of the year. Yar! The ex-ARR RDCs are in Oregon, methinks.
RDC is the wave of the past, and the Future. Its the only viable way to keep costs inline while being able to expand