News-Miner Editorial
Face to face
It's time for a meeting between each side in the railroad debate
Published Saturday, March 22, 2008
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Stumble It!Pat Gamble, president of the Alaska Railroad, says he’s ready to talk and listen when it comes to the controversial topic of the proposed realignment of the railroad tracks in the Fairbanks area.
Those opposed to the railroad’s plan have legitimate concerns grounded in years of expertise and study, but they should accept Mr. Gamble’s offer to sit down and come to a general agreement on some basic facts, chief among them the cost of a key component of the Alaska Railroad’s wide-ranging plan for reshaping its presence in the Fairbanks and North Pole areas.
Railroad officials are in the midst of planning on a three-phase realignment of the main line through Fairbanks and into North Pole as well as a realignment of the tracks on Fort Wainwright. All the parts are related and are being done in the name of safety, namely reducing the number of places where tracks cross roadways and, on Fort Wainwright, moving the tracks farther away from housing units. The difference of opinion between railroad officials and a vocal group of opponents primarily has to do with the order in which the projects are to be undertaken and whether one of the components, the Fort Wainwright project, needs to be done at all if another option is chosen.
The disagreement over the project order relates to a disagreement over the cost of one part of the realignment project — the so-called Southern Bypass, a late-stage component of the railroad’s larger plan and that would take the railroad to the south of the city on the west side. The railroad’s critics fear that that essential piece of the project will never get started once the Fort Wainwright component and the other phases of the overall plan are committed to. They say the Southern Bypass is essential for Fairbanks’ future and say it is just good, common-sense planning. Railroad officials, however, say they need to go ahead with the Fort Wainwright piece now because Congress has allocated money for it and they need to continue the other work in the order they’ve laid out because the final piece is so pricey that it’s funding is far from certain even though they, too, support its eventual construction.
Each side in this ongoing, at times acrimonious, debate puts out facts and maps that purport to be the truth. That leaves those on the outside confused.
Getting together to try to agree on some of the basic points, especially the cost, makes sense.
It may be that a third-party, such as the Fairbanks Economic Development Corp., will need to arrange and mediate the session given the emotion involved. If that’s what it takes, let’s get it done.
Community Discussion
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I can't figure ouy why people who purchased homes in Trainor Gate, area, etc, suddenly wake up a few years ago and noticed the inconvience, noise and supposed dangers to living there. Now they want to exhibit the "not in my backyard!" syndrome and move the traffic to other areas of town! There are as many people living in their proposed southern bypass on the west and south sides of Fairbanks as there are along the current routes. They talk safety---how many casulties have there been in the last 20 years along the current routes within the city limits????? None? How many are projected along a new proposed southern route????
I'm sorry for the "vocal group" but they made their bed when they purchased in their area, now they can sleep in their beds!
The Newsminer comes through with yet another brilliant idea...let FEDCO mediate. Yeah what you need is another corrupt sudo-goverment organization involved in this. Bottom line is the vast majority of Fairbanks residents don't want the Fort Wainwright realignment. I am not even convinced that Fort Wainwright wants it to happen (it would render a recently constructed railcar loading facility useless). If this is built there will be a lot national negative press (bridges anyone?) over the wasted money.
As a longtime Fairbanks/Shannon Park resident, I wonder how long Calendar has spent both in Fairbanks, and more specifically on the eastside??? Calendar expresses confusion at WHY NOW? Trainor Gate residence have suddenly come down with "not in my backyard! syndrome", but I think really Calendar is missing the heart of this issue. First and foremost one must recognize that Fairbanks' much heralded growth in the past decade has been largely concentrated on the east side a la NEW Freddy's, WalMART, HomeDepot, B&N, PetCo, Lowes, Old Navy ETC. While the businesses of Downtown have been trying for YEARS to develop a plan to spark an economic renaissance, it has already been happening just a couple miles away. The development of the land held by the Bentley Trust has had an ENORMOUS impact on the neighborhoods nearby. What makes these homes attractive is it's proximity to these merchants. Now let's look at the infrastructure changes there have been along Trainor Gate area. It's getting close to ten years now that they've completed the WIDENING of T. Gate, and I think it has been 2 years now that cars traveling down T. Gate have been unable to turn left on to Old Steese. Just this winter, AFTER Birchwood homes was privatized and all traffic from there was routed right on down T. Gate, we received a much needed green arrow at T.Gate and New Steese.
HOWEVER, AKRR's plans along T.Gate are COUNTERPRODUCTIVE to the GROWTH and EXPANSION going on all around it. Next time you're in the vicinity take a cruise down T Gate. and make note of the k rails blocking off D and E Streets. AKRR seeks greater safety by reducing the number of places where tracks cross roadways but all this does is create greater congestion on C & F Streets. Calendar wonders "how many casulties have there been in the last 20 years along the current routes within the city limits" and while I am hard pressed to think of any incident, I wonder how many streets can you close before traffic becomes so congested that a major catastrophe does happen????? The southern bypass is the ONLY way to INCREASE safety because otherwise, it's still a million barrels of oil rollin through the neighborhood. Calandar seeks to paint east side residents as a buch of whiners but AKRR's plan seeks to continue on as if nothing's new on the east side.
NEWSFLASH! EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED ON THE EAST SIDE. You think my parents, who bought their home in '86 envisioned what there is today???? Remember, before those box stores started attracting traffic from EVERYWHERE ELSE that land was FORESTED!!! NOTHING now when i look out my bed room window i can see the Steese Medical Center, Boston's, and the towering (at least for FBANKS standards) AlaskaUSA Financial Center. Just down the street from me is a BRAND NEW neighborhood, the astoundingly UGLY Lazelle Estates. Please Calendar, show me this kind of growth ANYWHERE along the proposed southern bypass route. Eastside Fairbanks has grown more than any part of Fairbanks, and AKRR's plans are Counter-Productive to the growth that will continue regardless of the outcome. Forgive us of being reluctant to give AKRR everything they want only to have them BALK at their end of the deal for lack of funds. Congrats AKRR on securing federal fund for your projects, but who's ensuring that those projects are in the best interest of Fairbanks residents.
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