Jan. 16--The Alaska Railroad Corp. has eliminated 12 jobs after reported declines in freight between Interior and Southcentral Alaska last year. The job losses occurred despite a rise in the number of passenger traffic, according to railroad officials.

Freight declines were the result of the rising costs of fuel and construction efforts at the Flint Hills refinery, located in the Interior, that caused slowdowns there, said spokesperson Tim Thompson.

Flint Hills Refinery's 2008 production of petroleum products dropped about 14 percent over the previous year's production. Shipment of trailers and containers were off 12 percent, while the railroad's barge-rail business dipped 16 percent. The railroad business also saw a decline in 2007, when Flint Hills discontinued the production of naphtha, used as a feedstock fuel.

Transportation for the military boosted business for the railroad, as it transported more than 1,000 vehicles belonging to the 1-125th Stryker Brigade Combat Team for a deployment to Iraq. The vehicles were shipped via rail flat cars from Fort Wainwright to the Port of Anchorage.

Also on the black side of the ledger, gravel activity rebounded with 28,309 car loads carrying 2.83 million tons for a 19 percent increase over 2007, and coal business gained with 550,000 metric tons hauled.

"This was a good year for coal; in fact one of the best ever," said Thompson.

This was in part due to test shipments of coal being shipped to Japan, China and South Korea in hopes of triggering future International business.

On the passenger side, the railroad saw an increase of 6 percent over 2007 that generated $1.37 million more than previous year's revenue. The railroad carried roughly 541, 000 passengers. Some of the revenue is attributed to the newly introduced Gold-Star First Class Service, which grew 36 percent year over year.

Thompson said bookings for the upcoming season are about what they expected.

"Bookings are on track according to previous years," he said. "While it is still early, most of the cruise ship industry doesn't see solid bookings until February, and last year most of the bookings were still coming in as late as March."

The railroad also improved its trailer on flat car operations this year by building a new track ramp to load heavy equipment onto flatcars.

The ramps were moved next to the operations center on Whitney Road in Anchorage as part of a phased effort to consolidate TOFC activities at the main rail yard.

To meet safety agendas a multi-phased collision avoidance system was tested and monitored last year.

The equipment includes trackside devices and has a dedicated communication network to prevent accidents. The systems are due to be in place by 2010.

Rob Stapleton can be reached at robstapleton.@alaskajournal.com.

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