A few years ago I heard talk of Alaska Railroad expanding its rail service through the Yukon towns of Whitehorse & Watson Lake then down to Dease Lake, B.C. From there it was to take the planned B.C. Rail extension to Fort St. James. When I worked in Watson Lake 18 months ago, I talked to a handful of people that thought a rail line around there wouldn’t work because the mining & logging industries went kaput for a number of reasons. Enviromental & world prices were two given. Was/is there any other reasons plans didn’t go through or is there any possibilities that the rail connections will happen[?]
The Alaska Railroad is planning on building east towards the Yukon border to serve the Army base at Fort Greely / Delta Junction. They also want to build further east to the border to meet a proposed line to be built from Fort Nelson, which would pass through Watson Lake. I believe it would then go through Ross River and miss Whitehorse. If several billion dollars appears out of nowhere, this line would get built. There would be little benefit to Canadians, certainly not enough to justify the cost, and I doubt American taxpayers would pay for it either.
Last I heard, Alaskans don’t pay any state income tax, as most of the state’s revenue comes from oil. Wouldn’t the citizens of Alaska benefit the most from a rail line to the lower 48 due to cheaper shipping costs? If so, they should pay for it.
If you check the web site of the Alkaska RR there is a link to studies of the potential for service thru Canada to the lower 48, and this topic has a number of “Subjects Topics” in the forum search.
The official government website for the project (under the Alaska Canada Rail Link Feasibility Study Project Office) is http://www.AlaskaCanadaRail.com/ . There is not a ton of detail on there other than preliminary engineering and route design contract awards, but I am sure as the project progresses, this will be the first place to get the information [8D].