Trucks, trains and transportation.

• Author: Gudde, Levi
• Position: Alaska

1995 was a slow year for Alaska's surface transporters, but the railroad and truckers say that steady gains - and some track and road maintenance - will keep them rolling.

There was no great or spectacular happening in the ground-transportation industry in 1995. There was no announcement of ANWR opening, or of the building of a gas pipeline, or of any other spectacular economic stimulus occurring.

Yet, something pretty spectacular did happen. Both the Alaska trucking industry and the Alaska Railroad survived another year in a slow economy that saw many businesses go under. And they even made some modest gains, according to Robert Hatfield Jr., president and CEO of the railroad, and Frank Dillon, executive director of the Alaska Trucking Association.

Success is measured in many ways, according to Hatfield. "For example, I consider it a great success that we even got a whole train to move in Fairbanks this morning, where the temperature was fifty below zero. That took the dedicated effort of many good people. And that's the kind of effort that keeps this railroad running, and helps us maintain our reputation for dependability."

That dependability, in spite of Alaska's often harsh and hazardous weather conditions and terrain, is one of the railroad's best features, according to Hatfield. "When we are competing for freight against the trucking industry, that's one of the features we emphasize. That and the fact that we can haul the really big and heavy loads."

And compete it must, because even though the railroad is a state-owned entity, it is, by law, a for-profit corporation. In other words, the railroad must sink or swim on its own merits, and for the last several years it's barely managed to tread water.

Working on the Railroad

During the last five years, the railroad has periodically made headlines by posting some significant losses, while announcing revenue reductions. "There's no question about the fact that the Alaska Railroad Corp. is under-capitalized," says Hatfield. "We also have, by my standards, a huge physical plant with the significant fixed costs associated with it. We have 550 miles, plus or minus, of track and related infrastructure, and 52 locomotives, whether we haul five railcars or 50,000. And we have to maintain that equipment and track whether we have a lot of business or a little.

"For the most part, the losses we've posted over the last two years were self-inflicted wounds," he goes on to say. "We knew what we were...