Railway-port connections: rising importance for state economy.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: TRANSPORTATION

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Alaska's railway-port connections are key to the state economy and, with a major rail expansion in the works, their importance is on the rise.

"There are three economic drivers in the state. One is the Alaska Railroad, one is Ted Stevens (Anchorage) International Airport and the other is the Port of Anchorage," said former Alaska Gov. Bill Sheffield, Anchorage port director.

Rail is one of those three key economic engines, but it also supports the other two. Jet fuel and other products are shipped by rail to the airport and, according to Sheffield, nearly 70 percent of the freight destined for Fairbanks and Interior Alaska offloaded at the Port of Anchorage is transported north by rail.

Most products sold in local stores are trucked from freight barges docked at the Port of Anchorage. But the railroad carries materials needed to build large projects--the pipe that built the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, for example--and heavy, sometimes hazardous materials such as fuel, fertilizer and bulk antifreeze used at the Anchorage airport and sold by the gallon in Carrs/Safeway stores.

Those shipments come in through Alaska Railroad Corp.'s two oldest ports--Whittier and Seward, as do one of Alaska's other bulk commodities--tourists. Seward has one of the busiest ports in Southcentral Alaska and Whittier is a major freight intake point. The two communities are integral parts of today's rail operations and the Alaska Railroad, in turn, has helped shape both cities.

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While Alaska Railroad does not operate a dock at the Port of Anchorage, the railroad's corporate headquarters are located near the port and it is one of the port's busiest customers, shipping freight north to the Interior and transporting fuel and other goods to Anchorage International Airport.

Alaska's rail line is poised to become even more vital to the state economy. In the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, a $218 million project is under way to build a rail line from the main Alaska Railroad line north of Wasilla to the borough-owned Port MacKenzie.

ALASKA'S FIRST RAIL-LINKED PORT

Seward is where it all began, and it remains the busiest rail-linked port city in Southcentral. In 1903, the first railroad in the state began in Seward and ran 50 miles north. Twelve years later, Congress paid $35 million to extend the rail line to Fairbanks, in the process creating Anchorage, which began as a railroad construction town.

Today, Alaska Railroad manages the Port of Seward. With good weather and a...