Portage is a station for a tiny village that no longer exists and the location of the junction off the mainline of the Alaska Railroad to Whittier. The entire village (population 71 in 1960) was wiped out during the 1964 earthquake when the entire area sank about 6 feet. The station was a very important location and terminus for passenger shuttle trains (that included flatbed cars for vehicles) between Portage and Whittier from the mid-1960s until 2000. Whittier was originally only connected to the outside world via marine access via Alaska Marine Highway and the railroad.
These shuttle trains were discontinued when the original 1940’s 2.5 mile long Whittier Access Tunnel used by the railroad, was rebuilt into the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, the longest combined rail-road tunnel in the world. This tunnel was completed for vehicle traffic (with some railroad trains continue running through the tunnel during construction) in June 2000. This single-track/single-lane tunnel runs in pulses with traffic allowed to depart in each direction for 15 minutes out of each hour. When trains pass through, they generally take priority and cause more extensive roadway delays before the next pulse for traffic.
The station is located just beyond then northern end of the wye allowing trains coming from Anchorage going to Whittier to stop at the station without any change of direction, but service from Grandview (or Steward) to Whittier that wants to stop at Portage before continuing through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel must have the crew change directions to stop at Portage.
The station today is a stop between two and four times on the once-daily Glacier Discovery Train that runs from Anchorage to Grandview via Whittier in both directions. The schedule lists 3 stops in Portage, one southbound (after Whittier), and two northbound both before and after Whittier). The Coastal Classic train bypasses the station. As of an early June 2024 test of the Alaska Railroad’s reservation system, the Alaska Railroad reservation system lists Portage and Portage 2nd Stop as stops but when I rode this train over Memorial Day Weekend 2024, we only stopped at Portage after Whittier, designed for passengers going from Portage to the Spencer Glacier, but not for passengers going from Anchorage, or Girdwood to Portage.
On evening northbound Glacier Discovery Trains a motorcoach to Anchorage connects with trains at Portage after the Spencer Glacier and before the Whittier Deviation), allowing passengers to return to Anchorage sooner, (saving 2 and a half hours of travel time) arriving around 6:30pm instead of around 9:00opm. This motorcoach must be booked in advance (call the Alaska Railroad) and isn’t an option on the Alaska Railroad website.
The station itself is a single-track station with a proper ground-level sidewalk-like platform. The platform leads out to a gravel parking lot with construction bollards holding up a chain asking passengers not to enter the platform until the train arrives. On the platform are no proper station signs except for one at the northern end of the platform that says, “Place Spencer Whistle Stop Luggage and Gear Hear until the train arrives.”
The gravel parking lot provides plenty of parking and all access to the station via one entrance from the Seward Highway (AK-1) Just south of the end of the platform is a small wooden with a metal roof station house. The building has a large sign on its roof for Chugach Adventures and the Alaska Railroad. Chugach Adventures is a private rafting company that is intertwined with the railroad since it leads rafting tours from Spencer Glacier, with all of its equipment (including vehicles at Spencer Glacier delivered via flat cars on special freight trains) at the glacier needing transportation via railroad. I didn’t have time to visit the inside of the depot when I quickly ran on and off the Glacier Discovery Train to get photos on the station platform.
Photos 1-21: May 25, 2024
