Canada studies building new rail line to Alaska
The Yukon village of Carmacks could become the hub of rail traffic in Yukon if a consultants report on a proposed rail route is accepted, according to the CBC News.
The $6-million report, compiled by 10 different firms looking into the project, suggests that a new railway connecting southern Canada to Yukon and Alaska should not follow the Alaska Highway.
Instead, the report’s authors say the railroad should take a more easterly and northerly route, along the Robert Campbell Highway and the resource-rich Tintina Trench. The route’s hub would be Carmacks, a village about 120 kilometres north of Whitehorse.
“This route does not follow the Alaska Highway and that’s for a couple of reasons,” said Kells Boland, head of the Alaska-Canada Rail Link Feasibility Study. “The pipeline market [is] for two or three years. The mineral market is for a much larger period, we’re looking at a 50-year life cycle for this.”
While the consultants decided opening up the territory’s mineral wealth was more important than serving the gas line, Boland points out the route would still intersect with three staging points along the pipeline route.
It would allow the project to “have its cake and eat it too” in serving the multi-billion pipeline project, he said.
The report sees the railroad being built in three major parts:
*Carmacks to Skagway or Haines, Alaska.
*Carmacks to New Hazelton, the CN rail connection in B.C.
*Carmacks to Delta Junction, Alaska, a direct link to the state’s rail system.
A financial advisory group will now work on coming up with a firmer price tag for the project. Earlier estimates have the line costing up to $1 billion.
(This item was distributed by the CBC News July 5, 2006.)
From UTU Site