Free Republic

The board of directors of the state-owned Alaska Railroad has voted unanimously to rescind the vaccination mandate it had imposed on employees just days earlier. According to the Anchorage Daily News, last Friday, it had emailed employees:“Over the last six weeks, we’ve carefully reviewed additional EO guidelines and our interactions with federal agencies to determine if the Alaska Railroad is affected. We are. As a federal contractor, ARRC must meet this standard,” The railroad stands to lose millions of dollars a year in federal contracts and grants, and possibly access to Forest Service land housing some facilities. This is no...

JUNEAU—The Alaska Railroad Corp. board of directors has approved an agreement with a firm seeking to link Alaska and Canada by rail. The board voted unanimously Thursday morning to approve the deal, which does not require the state-owned railroad corporation to fund the project.Construction is estimated to cost $13 billion, according to a presentation given to the Alaska Legislature earlier this year, and is years away.....Under the agreement, the Alaska-to-Alberta Railroad Development Corp. —known as A2A Rail — receives an “exclusive right” to operate a cross-border railroad and the ability to use Alaska Railroad’s existing network as it seeks to...

<p>The Alaska Railroad Corp. and Alberta Railway Development Corp. have agreed pursue a 1,500-mile rail connection, the Alaska Railroad's Board of Directors announced in a press release on Thursday.</p> <p>The agreement calls for the two corporations to apply for right-of-way guaranteed under state law for a rail connection into Canada. It also calls for identifying work needed to upgrade existing facilities, bridges and track on the 512-mainline running from Seward to North Pole.</p>

(VIDEO AT SOURCE)Thursday on MSNBC’s special coverage of Attorney General William Barr’s press conference on the eminent release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report network host Nicolle Wallace quoted Fox news Network anchor Chris Wallace’s reaction. Wallace said, “This is from Fox News, Chris Wallace of Fox News is watching the same live event that you and I just did. Chris Wallace on Fox News said this, quote, ‘the attorney general seemed almost to be acting as the counselor for the defense, the counselor for the president rather than the attorney general, talking about his motives, his emotions. Really, as...

The Alaska Senate wants a federal border permit that would allow a railroad crossing to be built between the state and Canada. Senators voted 19-0 on Senate Joint Resolution 11, according to a release from the Alaska Senate majority Monday. Sen. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, is chair of the Senate Transportation Committee and says a railroad through Canada would benefit people all over the state. “A railroad connecting Alaska to Alberta would provide a huge boost to our state’s economy,” she said in the release. “Access to the North American railroad system would mean faster and more efficient shipping of goods,...

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is asking President Donald Trump to grant a presidential permit to extend the Alaska Railroad into Canada, supporting a Canadian company seeking to blaze a new path for Asian-bound products. Linking the Alaska and North American rail systems, an idea more than a century old, would cut at least two days travel time for Canadian and Lower 48 cargo headed to the Far East because of shorter sea routes, supporters say. “To me it was a no-brainer,” said Sean McCoshen, chief executive of Alberta to Alaska Railway Development Corp., speaking to the Senate Transportation Committee late...

With another hurricane bearing down on the Gulf Coast, the so-called “bridge to nowhere,” championed by Alaska’s Congressional delegation on behalf of the people of Ketchikan, just won’t go away. Three years ago, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the plan to spend hundreds of millions to connect Ketchikan with its airport on Gravina Island became a national symbol of Congressional excess, much to the dismay of Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young. Sen. John McCain has made it a habit to ridicule the bridge project during his presidential campaign. McCain has promised to veto any bill sent to...

Standing near the end of the line of Friday, Gov. Frank Murkowski said it was just a beginning. In a Friday afternoon ceremony held a few miles from the terminus of the Alaska Railroad at Eielson Air Force Base, Murkowski ratified a pair of bills meant to facilitate an extension of the railroad another 80 miles to Fort Greely. The governor pitched the bills--two of eight bills he signed on Friday in and around Fairbanks--as a first step toward connecting the Alaska Railroad to the North American rail system some 1,100 miles away. "What this does is move us one...