page_title: Alaska Railroad
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Alaska Railroad / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Sign near the train platform outside of the Alaska Railroad station in Anchorage. Lists distances via rail to other Alaskan communities.
context_page_description: The Alaska Railroad is a Class II railroad which extends from Seward and Whittier, in the south of the state of Alaska, in the United States, to Fairbanks, and beyond to Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright in the interior of that state. At one time in its history, it extended to the banks of the Yukon River northeast of Fairbanks. Uniquely, it carries both freight and passengers throughout its system, including Denali National Park. The railroad has a mainline over 470 miles long and is well over 500 miles including branch lines and siding tracks. It is currently owned by the state of Alaska. The railroad is connected to the contiguous 48 via three rail barges that sail between the Port of Whittier, Alaska and Harbor Island in Seattle but does not currently have a direct, land-based connection with any other railroad lines on the North American network. In 2016, the company suffered a net loss of $4.3 million on revenues of $169.8 million, holding $1.1 billion in total assets.
context_section_description: In 1903 a company called the Alaska Central Railroad began to build a rail line beginning at Seward, near the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, northward. The company built 51 miles (82 km) of track by 1909 and went into receivership. This route carried passengers, freight and mail to the upper Turnagain Arm. From there, goods were taken by boat at high tide, and by dog team or pack train to Eklutna and the Matanuska-Susitna Valley. 
  In 1909, another company, the Alaska Northern Railroad Company, bought the rail line and extended it another 21 miles (34 km) northward. From the new end, goods were floated down the Turnagain Arm in small boats. The Alaska Northern Railroad went into receivership in 1914.
  About this time, the United States government was planning a railroad route from Seward to the interior town of Fairbanks. The President, William Howard Taft, authorized a commission to survey a route in 1912. The line would be more than 470 miles (760 km) long and provide an all-weather route to the interior.
  In 1914, the government bought the Alaska Northern Railroad and moved its headquarters to "Ship Creek," later called Anchorage. The government began to extend the rail line northward.
  In 1917, the Tanana Valley Railroad in Fairbanks was heading into bankruptcy. It owned a small 45-mile (72 km) 3 ft (914 mm) (narrow gauge) line that serviced the towns of Fairbanks and the mining communities in the area as well as the boat docks on the Tanana River near Fairbanks.
  The government bought the Tanana Valley Railroad, principally for its terminal facilities. The section between Fairbanks and Happy was converted to dual gauge in order to complete the 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge line from Seward to Fairbanks. The government extended the south portion of the track to Nenana and later converted the extension to standard gauge. The Alaska Railroad continued to operate the remaining TVRR narrow gauge line as the Chatanika Branch (the terminus was located near the Yukon River), until decommissioning it in 1930.
  In 1923 they built the 700-foot (213 m) Mears Memorial Bridge across the Tanana River at Nenana. This was the final link in the Alaska Railroad and at the time, was the second longest single-span steel railroad bridge in the country. U. S. President Warren G. Harding drove the golden spike that completed the railroad on July 15, 1923, on the north side of the bridge. The railroad was part of the US Department of the Interior.
  The Alaska Railroad's first diesel locomotive entered service in 1944. The railroad retired its last steam locomotive in 1966.
  The railroad was greatly affected by the Good Friday earthquake which struck southern Alaska in 1964. The yard and trackage around Seward buckled and the trackage along Turnagain Arm was damaged by floodwaters and landslides. It took several months to restore full service along the line.
  In 1967, the railroad was transferred to the Federal Railroad Administration, an agency within the newly created US Department of Transportation.
  In 1985, the state of Alaska bought the railroad from the U.S. government for $22.3 million, based on a valuation determined by the US Railway Association. The state immediately invested over $70 million on improvements and repairs that made up for years of deferred maintenance. The purchase agreement prohibits the Alaska Railroad from paying dividends or otherwise returning capital to the state of Alaska (unlike the other Alaska quasi-entities: Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC), and Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA)).
caption: Sign at Anchorage train station.
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