Anchorage is Alaska’s largest city and home to nearly 40% of the state’s population. This makes the station the most important stop on the Alaska Railroad. The station is where all five of the regularly scheduled Alaska Railroad trains stop at least some of the year.
In Summer this station receives service from three daily Alaska Railroad trains departing and arriving, plus the separate McKinley Explorer train of Princess cruises and Holland America UltraDome cars (although regular passengers can buy tickets just for it).
The only regularly scheduled train that doesn’t stop in Anchorage is the Hurricane Turn Train under its summer schedule, although the monthly off-season (one round-trip on the first Thursday of the month) Hurricane Turn Train runs to and from Anchorage (the only time you can make a same-day round trip from Anchorage to the Hurricane Turn). Winter service is supplemented by the Aurora Winter train to Fairbanks that operates weekly or better in the off season between mid-September and mid-May, there is no service south of Ancherage in the off season.
There are also additional summer cruise ship charter trains that either originate at the Anchorage Airport station (that unfortunately does not receive any regularly scheduled train service) or in the case of Princess Cruise Lines Direct-to-the-Wilderness trains pass through the station some without stopping (although many do stop near the station for a crew change).
The station depot is a historic building built in 1942 and currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A plaque inside the depot says “This building was erected during the Administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harold L. Ickes, secretary of the interior, and Otto F. Ohlson, General Manager, Alaska Railroad. J.B. Warrick Company buildings, 1942.” The historic building is a three-story Moderne-style concrete building that was enlarged in 1948. It is painted an off-white color.
The station is located along 1st Avenue at the bottom of a steep hill with the skyline of downtown Anchorage looming above the station. The Town Square Park is less than a half-mile/10-minute walk away, about 80 feet uphill. There are some paid parking lots surrounding the station, plus a historic steam locomotive on permanent display across the street from the station.
Passengers enter the station through a single set of doors that leads to a simple but large single-level combined ticketing and waiting room. At the southern end of the building is the ticket office where all passengers must check-in for a boarding pass (yes, the Alaska Railroad sort-of functions like an airline) by showing their photo ID and receiving a paper ticket with seat assignments. At the opposite end of the depot is a small Alaska Railroad gift shop, that is even open in winter on days the Aurora Winter Train is scheduled to depart the station. There are also restrooms, and a few wooden benches along the walls of the station.
Baggage (except in winter) isn’t checked in at the ticket counter but just to the east of the depot is a large white tent where baggage is checked and retrieved. This is because the Alaska Railroad has barrowed its baggage operations from the cruise lines, uses forklifts and plastic pallets with two-foot-high walls to load baggage onto and off of trains. Baggage handlers load bags into these pallets and unload bags directly from the pallets onto the ground before placing all bags in a line at the back of the tented baggage area.
To board trains, “All Aboard” for each train is called inside the depot before passengers are led out a second set of doors to the three tracks that served as a quasi-paved platform outside the station. This set of doors is closed off by a retractable belt when no trains are boarding or alighting. This platform area begins a short-ways from the grade-crossing of C Street and runs west. There is a small area that’s just ballast between the end of the platform area and C street to prevent passengers from entering and leaving the platform area via the grade-crossing. 4 tracks pass through the station area with 3 able to platform.
Tracks 2 and 3 (closest to the depot) are ground-level tracks and fully paved over. Track 1 (the farthest track from the depot) has a modular looking high-level platform alongside it. Four staircases and a ramp lead directly to this high-level platform with passengers having to walk over tracks 2 and 3. A large sign says Limited Clearance at each end of it (don’t pass by it with a freight train).
The high-level platform is used for the Denali Star and Coastal Classic Trains with the Glacier Discovery Train stopping on Track 2 in front of it. The Denali Star is much longer than the platform, with passengers on the chartered Wilderness Explorer cars that are always at the back of the Denali Star boarding and detraining not via high-level platform but to the ground below. A few motorcoaches for Wilderness Explorer passenger’s pull-up directly alongside the platform where these train cars stop.
Just across C Street from the main part of the station is a secondary platform area that is where fully chartered cruise ship trains like McKinley Explorer (the second daily in summer entirely ultra-dome car train to Denali National Park) stops. This platform area consists of a large paved area between Tracks 1 and 3 with track 2 switching onto track 3 just opposite the main station platform. This paved area lacks any amenities but has enough space for tour buses to pull-up directly trainside and load and unload passengers directly in front of the UltraDomes.
The McKinley Explorer is a chartered train – train cars are owned by Princess or Holland America –that is primarily purchased as part of LandCruise tour packages. Individual tickets can also be purchased for this train and a small sign at the entrance to the depot says “9:15am northbound train to Talkeetna and Denali check-in at white tent: (the baggage tent) with the logos of Holland America, Princess, and Grey Line Alaska below it, directing passengers who are boarding the train not as part of a package.
Operationally trains are stored overnight near the main Anchorage freight train yard on the opposite side of Ship Creek with tracks into the yard leading off the main line beyond each end of the station (closer to the railroad south – western end of the station platforms), these tracks provide easy ways to wye all trains. This is also where private railcars like the McKinley Explorer and Wilderness Express are repaired, serviced (and the kitchen areas restocked) in these railroad yards.
Photos 1-38: May 25, 2024; 39-95: May 27, 2024;
