Alaska Communter Train

Alaskan Commuter Train?!

Here is an Alaska Railroad train looking more like a big city urban commuter train than the mountain climbing wilderness railroad people normally think of!

This is train 215W, the Grandview Cruise Train loading passengers at the Bill Sheffield Alaska Railroad Depot located at Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport depot which opened in 2003. A typical Alaskan pork barrel boondoggle, while modern and gorgeous it has never lived up to its potential as told here.

One everyone is aboard the 'low level dome cars' the train will depart out the branch and hang a right at the wye and enter the mainline at CP 1102 to head south on a spectacular journey to Seward. This Sunday special was operated exclusively for Holland America lines and everyone aboard is destined to a cruise ship docked at tidewater at the head of Resurrection Bay.

Anchorage, Alaska
Sunday July 13, 2008

Photo courtesy of Dave Blazejewski