Obama to Canada: A Rail Link to Alaska?

President Obama visits Canada on Thursday, Feb. 19, for a few hours of summiteering with Canadian leaders. Despite the brief affair -- in by 10:30, out by 5:30 -- Canadians are meeting him with "celebrity fever" not seen since the time of Ronald Reagan. 

The relationship between the U.S. and Canada is a key factor in planning surface transportation infrastructure connecting North America and Eurasia across the Bering Strait. Currently, there is no railroad connecting the U.S. lower 48 states to Alaska. The U.S. rail system connects to Canada's, but the closest that system gets to Alaska is Prince Rupert and Fort Nelson, BC. 

In 2007, a feasibility study for an Alaska Canada Rail Link by the governments of Alaska and Yukon was released. 

Here's the official website: 

The Alaska Canada Rail Link (ACRL) Phase 1 Feasibility Study considers a rail connection through Alaska, Yukon and Northern B.C. linking North Pacific Rim markets in the shortest trade corridor between North Asia and North America via a U.S. port.

Mutually dependent economics of large-scale northern resource and railway development are compelling.

Drastic changes in global demand - driven by Asian markets - have sharply raised the value of mineral resources in north western Canada and Alaska and rail infrastructure investment would dramatically increase economic productivity, development and sustainability in this region.

A new North Pacific Rim Trade Corridor may be well positioned to complement bulk mineral resource traffic for export to Asia with container import traffic from Asia.

A rail connection through Canada would improve the economic security of Alaska and the lower 48 United States by providing both essential supply route redundancy, as well as West Coast container congestion relief with a new Alaska sea/rail port gateway on U.S. soil.

The feasibility study was released on June 19, 2007, and favors models where ports in either Alaska, Yukon or British Columbia handle sea-going shipping between East Asia and the U.S. lower 48 states.