Canadian group pushes rail line from oil sands to Alaska

[unhappycamper]

http://www.adn.com/2014/02/03/3305420/canadian-group-intends-ak-rail.html

Canadian group pushes rail line from oil sands to Alaska
By JENNIFER CANFIELD
Juneau Empire
February 3, 2014

JUNEAU, Alaska — Could a $15 billion railroad project reduce the cost of living in Alaska overnight? Matt Vickers, a lead member in the startup group G7G Railway Corp., thinks it can.

Vickers' Vancouver-based group is proposing a 1,600-mile railroad from Fort McMurray, Alberta, into Alaska. About 240 miles of the rail would be laid in the state. The railroad would primarily transport bitumen from Alberta's tar sands to Delta Junction, where the project's creators hope to tap into TAPS, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.

That version of the project would depend on the Alaska Railroad Corporation extending its rail line 80 miles from North Pole to Delta Junction. Vickers thinks it could inject up to a million barrels a day through the pipeline down to Valdez.

Is it too good to be true? Well, there are some major safety concerns when transporting oil by rail that weren't covered in Vickers' presentation to the Senate and House Transportation Committees, although he did say that the rail was being designed using the best technology available.