The Alaska Railroad (reporting mark ARR) 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 (passing through Anchorage), and beyond to Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright in the interior of that state. Uniquely (for America), it carries both freight and passengers throughout its system, including Denali National Park (most other intercity passenger rail in the U.S.A. is carried on the federal Amtrak system). The railroad has a mainline over 470 miles (760 km) long and is well over 500 miles (800 km) including branch lines and sidings. It is currently owned by the state of Alaska. The railroad is connected to the lower 48 via three rail barges that sail between the Port of Whittier and Harbor Island in Seattle (the Alaska Railroad-owned Alaska Rail Marine, from Whittier to Seattle, and the CN Rail-owned Aqua Train, from Whittier to Prince Rupert, British Columbia) but does not currently have a direct, land-based connection with any other railroad lines on the North American network. In 2008, the company earned a profit of $12.5 million (down 23%) on revenues of $158.7 million (up 6.9%), $121.7 million of which was operating revenue (up 5.2%).
Read more about Alaska Railroad: History, Routes and Tourism, In Popular Culture
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“... no other railroad station in the world manages so mysteriously to cloak with compassion the anguish of departure and the dubious ecstasies of return and arrival. Any waiting room in the world is filled with all this, and I have sat in many of them and accepted it, and I know from deliberate acquaintance that the whole human experience is more bearable at the Gare de Lyon in Paris than anywhere else.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)