Frank Turpin: determined driver.

• Author: Richardson, Jeffrey
• Position: Alaska Railroad Corp. president Frank Turpin - Interview

SINCE FIRST UNDER STATE OWNERSHIP, the reins of Alaska Railroad Corp. have been in Frank Turpin's hands. The firm's president and chief executive officer holds a master's degree in chemical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. A 37-year career with Exxon culminated in his appointment as president of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. in 1978. In 1985, Turpin retired from Exxon to assume charge of the newly purchased Alaska Railroad.

ABM: What milestones of the last five years are you most happy about?

Turpin: I think the improvements we've been able to make to the physical plant have just been a terrific success. We've invested slightly over $70 million. Prior to the state acquiring the railroad, it was capital-starved. It really hadn't had enough money re-invested to keep it up to an adequate level.

We've been able to buy new equipment, quite a lot of new equipment, both for freight and passengers. So much the average person doesn't see: the roadbed and the amount of work we've been able to do to improve the track. The old timers say it has never been better.

ABM: Have these improvements been made to make the railroad more profitable and useful, or chiefly to give the line a better resale position?

Turpin: We did it for the former reason. However, it certainly makes it more salable. And the fact that we've been able to operate in the black also suddenly makes us attractive, or at least an investment that a lot of organizations are becoming interested in.

After every annual report I get calls from several people who want to know if we're still interested in selling. And some of these are very serious and very good.

ABM: Were there any particular surprises in the first five years?

Turpin: Well, the economy taking a nose-dive the year after we moved in was not exactly predicted. We had a very grand 1985. I think it was about March 1986 we realized the bottom was dropping out.

ABM: You caught a lot of flak from the trucking industry after the state takeover Has that issue been resolved?

Turpin: That was a group of, I guess we say, independent truckers. They weren't companies like Lynden, they actually ship with us. These were people who owned their own rigs. They cried that our rates were predatory. We had people look at that (including the Interstate Commerce Commission) and they found that we were in very fair condition, it was fair competition. As a result of that the truckers began hauling double, that put them certainly closer to...