Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker said he thinks the railroad should travel through the middle of the Parks Highway as it runs through a section of Fairbanks.

And as far as he's concerned, that's the borough's official recommendation to the Alaska Railroad Corp., which is planning a realignment project.

Some Borough Assembly members and participants in a borough-sponsored railroad task force, however, think the borough has yet to give the railroad corporation a final recommendation and called Whitaker's assertions premature.

The dispute focuses on a resolution passed Feb. 26 by the Borough Assembly and a corresponding letter that Whitaker sent to Alaska Railroad Corp. President Pat Gamble.
The resolution, passed by a 6-3 vote, states that the assembly "fully supports the realignment of the Alaska Railroad from Fairbanks to North Pole to improve safety, economy and effcienty (cq) of the railroad."

However, the document also mentions the benefits of Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the realignment plan, a reference to labels the borough-sponsored railroad task force used for realignment options it considered. What the "phases" mean is a matter of who is asked and is a source of confusion for many involved in the realignment planning process.

Whitaker said that by including Phase 2 in the resolution, the assembly formally recommended a realignment plan that would place the tracks in the middle of the Parks Highway as it travels through a section of Fairbanks. The train would run down the middle of the Parks, with vehicle traffic on both sides, to the Tanana River dike, then follow the dike all the way to the North Pole oil refinery area.

That route would contradict a draft recommendation made in October 2003 by the Rail 2100 Task Force, a 17-member group created by the assembly in 2002 to develop realignment recommendations.

The task force had recommended in its draft report to have the train split from just south of Anderson and follow a loop through the foothills of the Alaska Range. The tracks would run through the Salcha area and connect with North Pole.

In his letter to Gamble, Whitaker wrote that the path down the middle of the Parks was the borough's official recommendation.

"This decision has been made after a lengthy review process. It is a final decision," Whitaker wrote.

Not so, said Bonnie Williams, a member of the Rail 2100 Task Force and one of the three assembly members who voted against the Feb. 26 resolution.

She said the task force has not even prepared a final report and was planning to make a presentation to the assembly before a vote took place. Williams said the plan to have the train run down the middle of the Parks would present too many logistical challenges and that the path through the Alaska Range foothills comes with more benefits.

The debate is not over as Whitaker asserts, Williams said. "We will soldier on," she said, explaining the task force plans to keep working on a recommendation.

Whitaker said the task force has completed its work and no longer exists. "They have been sent letters of thank you," he said.

The whole situation is quite confusing to Assemblyman Garry Hutchison, who also voted against the Feb. 26 resolution, which he called a "goofy thing."

Hutchison said that since the resolution passed, he's learned that Phase 2 means something different to the Alaska Railroad Corp. than it does to Whitaker.

While Whitaker has stated that Phase 2 means a path down the Parks, he said, the railroad corporation interprets the language only as a recommendation to extend the railroad from the North Pole area to Delta Junction, a concept that most parties involved in the debate agree on.

Hutchison said he shares Williams' view that the Rail 2100 Task Force will likely continue its work and make a final presentation to the assembly, hopefully sorting out all the confusion.

"Stay tuned. This isn't done," he said.

On Monday, the North Pole City Council passed a resolution containing the exact language as the document approved by the assembly. Mayor Jeff Jacobson, also a member of the Rail 2100 Task Force, said the resolution was meant only as a recommendation for Phase 1 of the project, a less controversial realignment proposal aimed at eliminating crossings between Fairbanks and North Pole.

Jacobson said he did not have a problem with Whitaker's suggestion for a path down the Parks, but that he thought the Rail 2100 Task Force was supposed to meet again.