Whittier
Whittier is the only passenger station to receive regularly scheduled daily Summer only service on a branch of the Alaska Railroad Railbelt mainline (charter trains from cruise lines serve additional branches regularly). The Whittier cutoff is a 12.4 mile branch that was originally constructed in the 1943 to service the Whittier Army Base. The branch is notable since there are two long tunnels on it, and it provided the only land connection to Portage until 2000 with regularly scheduled Whittier to Portage Shuttle trains with flat cars for vehicles.
Today train service is provided by the daily in Summer Glacier Discovery Train and charter trains from the cruise lines to Anchorage Airport and Princess Cruises exclusive Direct-to-the-Wilderness Trains that run between its cruise ships and McKilney siding station or Denali National Park.
After leaving Portage trains pass through the mile long (and dead-straight) tunnel under Beigch Peak, before briefly returning to daylight to pass the vehicle staging area in the Bear Valley. From here trains pass through the most unique railroad tunnel in North America, the shared single track/single lane Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. This tunnel is about two and a half miles long and has a paved over track bed with trains slotted into the tunnel between traffic that is released into the single-lane tunnel at 15 minute intervals every hour. Just beyond the tunnel trains immediately arrive into Whittier with the Whittier depot just a short ways away.
The Whittier station is very primitive, consisting of a two tracks, with one platform. The track closest to the platform is fully paved over, the next one the low-level platform ends right at the closest track. There is a faded yellow line on the platform at the edge of the platform. Along a portion of the platform is a white tent structure that provides passengers shelter while they wait for trains at this often-rainy station in the most northern rainforest in the world.
This white tent structure leads to a crosswalk across Camp Road (the main road into Whittier) and to a covered by another white tent walkway to the cruise ship terminal. On each side of the main cruise ship terminal are additional marinas including the Cliffside Marina, offering various day cruises that can easily be done as daytrips via train from Anchorage. These are timed to normally connect with the train schedule.
Additional connections are to and from the Alaska Marine Highway, a state ferry system with in most summer seasons multi-day ferry voyages to Bellingham (with the dock right across from the Bellingham Amtrak Station), although in 2024 crewing difficulties have resulted in no cross-Alaska sailings from Whittier to Bellingham (across from the Bellingham Amtrak Station). Day boats provide service to Valdez and Cordova with limited stops in Tatitlek.
South of the station the tracks cross the Whittier Creek on a little bridge and fan out into many more tracks into the Whittier Railyard. This railyard includes a railroad float dock that leads to roll-on-roll-off service on a rail barge that provides regularly scheduled freight service to and from Seattle. This railroad float dock is the Alaska Railroads connection to the rest of the American Railroad network.
Whitter itself is a very unusual city (there are now incorporated towns in Alaska, just first and second-class cities), where its 272 residents practically all live under one roof. The Begich Towers which includes an on-premises school, shops, church and other amenities. The Begich Towers isn’t very visible from the railroad station, just the other large, older and abandoned Buckner Building. These two buildings were both built by the military when Whittier was developed as a military harbor during World War II before being abandoned by the military in the 1960s. Residents who don’t live in the Begich Towers live in one other smaller apartment building, the Whittier Manor.
Photos 1-43: May 27, 2024
