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9/28/2020
President Donald Trump on Sept. 25 said in a tweet that he expects to issue a permit for a 1,600-mile rail line that would connect Alaska to Canada and the lower 48 states.
Trump tweeted that, based on the "strong recommendation" of U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and U.S. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), he will issue a presidential permit for the Alaska to Alberta Railway.
A2A Railway was established to build, own and operate a railway connecting Alaska Railroad Corp. (ARRC) and Alaska's tidewater to northern Alberta, Canada.
In June, ARRC and A2A Railway Development Corp. signed a master agreement of cooperation calling for the construction of a rail connection between ARRC's system and Canadian railroads that would link to the lower 48 U.S. states.
The new rail line would cut down on the time it takes to get products between Asia and North America, said A2A's Alaska Vice Chair Mead Treadwell, according to a report in the Anchorage Daily News.
Treadwell said Trump's announcement was a "wonderful surprise," adding that the permit would boost investor confidence in the project, the news outlet reported.
The proposed route would carry commodities such as bitumen, grain, fertilizer, pipe, containers and sulfur, as well as passengers, Treadwell said.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a statement that the presidential permit represented a "major milestone," and that south-central Alaska could become an "additional port of the Pacific and world for provinces such as Alberta and Midwestern states," according to the news report.