between Anchorage and Fairbanks re - sumed April 6 and to Whittier on April 20. Passengers were traveling by April 11. The railroad again demonstrated its value in the 1970s, providing heavy- haul service to support construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. Rails had meanwhile been extended east of Fairbanks to Eielson Air Force Base, providing support to that installation, now home to the nation’s most ad - vanced fighter-interceptors. Plans were made for further ex - tensions east to Fort Greely, where the nation’s missile in-terceptors are based. That link has not yet been built but a bridge across the Tanana Riv - er was constructed as the first incre - ment of the rail east. Today the bridge supports Army operations on training ranges south of the river. Today, the Alaska Railroad is under state ownership and continues to sup - port the growth of Alaska’s economy.
a new service catering to summer vis - itors as well as Alaskans and laid the foundation for the railroad’s import - ant role in supporting the small but growing visitor in-dustry. By 1953, there was growing compe - tition from trucks and autos on high - ways that were being built or upgraded. Passenger service to and from Seward was discontinued, not to return until the present-day summer service sup - porting cruise ships calling at Seward. Whittier, built by the U.S. Army during World War II, was becoming im - portant for the rail-road, which reached the Prince William Sound community through tunnels built during the war. The first train-barge service from Whittier was established in 1964, en - abling rail cars from anywhere in the Lower 48 to be brought to Alaska by sea and to reach any point along the Alaska Railroad. Earthquake damage on March 27, 1964, disrupted rail traffic but service was quickly restored. Freight service
nearby gold fields was also acquired, alt-hough this was mainly to obtain the rail terminal in Fairbanks. The government wanted the rail - road to make money, but the terri - tory’s economy was thin, at least in Interior and Southcentral Alaska, as gold mining declined. Seward, An - chorage and Fairbanks had combined populations of 5,400, not enough to generate a lot of busi-ness. In 1938, however, the railroad turned its first profit, and with the start of World War II its strategic im - portance was amply illustrated as military and civilian freight increased sharp-ly, and so the President’s deci - sion to build the railroad was justified. In the post-war years, Congress appropriated $100 million for track rehabilitation to repair the effects of heavy wartime use. The railroad also started its streamlined passenger ser- vice between Anchorage and Fair - banks, a train dubbed Aurora, with blue and gold colors. This ushered in
— Tim Bradner
100-Year Club Member: Alaska Railroad
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Alliance is proud to highlight members of the 100- Year Club, member companies that have been doing business in Alaska for more than a century. In this edition of The Link, we celebrate the Alaska Railroad, which continues to support the growth of Alas- ka’s support industries. In its day, construction of the Alaska Railroad in the midst and aftermath of World War I was as defining an event as building of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System in the 1970s. Both were seen as national security infrastructure and key to opening access to natural re-sources — the Interior Alaska goldfields in the case of the rail - road and newly-discovered North Slope oil fields in the case of the pipeline.
There were key differences, of course. The pipeline was built and fi - nanced by private industry, North Slope oil producers Atlantic Richfield, BP, and Humble Oil (later ExxonMobil). The railroad was a government initiative, owned and operated by the federal gov - ernment until it was purchased by the state of Alaska in 1985 for $22 million. President Woodrow Wilson had the vision to push this strategic infra - structure in 1914, as war clouds loomed in Europe, and to persuade a reluctant Congress to fund its estimated cost of $35 million. Construction began in 2015 with completion in 1923. President Warren G. Harding trav - eled to Alaska to drive a golden spike at Nenana, southwest of Fairbanks, to mark the completion. On his return
trip Harding died from food poi-son - ing in San Francisco. The number of construction work - ers, peaking at 4,500 in 2017, was not to rival the 10,000 that worked on the pipeline, but the project had a huge im - pact on Alaska at the time and was to transform the then-territory. Anchor - age, founded as a construction camp in 1915, was to become its largest city. There were prior railroads, of course, regional lines built to support gold mines. The private Alaska Cen - tral Railway, later the Alaska Northern Railway, was built a few miles north from Seward. It later went bankrupt. The rail line was later acquired by the government to be part of the Seward-to-Fairbanks line. A region - al 45-mile rail line from Fairbanks to
46
THE LINK: The Official Magazine of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance | SPRING 2026
www.AlaskaAlliance.com 47
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker