Alaska Railroad COALition #1

Woody Guthrie loved the rail sea to shining sea, a hobo’s lullaby in “this land is your land, this land is my land”. I also enjoy hearing that Union Pacific Engine 420 on the strain pulling freight through town, the whistle stops getting a wakeup call from the blast of the air horn. It is kind of like a visible and audible indicator of the economy, the more times I am blasted awake out of a sound sleep, the better off we are! And it appears the damage assessment with the 7.0 Richter earth shaker up in Alaska, well it isn’t even back page news today as Alaskans were prepared. Only a single injury attributable to the “shake”, some guy was thrown out of his pool when the tsunami hit. OK, he was from Wasillabilly Heights - just down the road from wherein Sarah Palin frequents that 2nd floor crapper, the outpost where she can see Russia when doing the morning routine. OK, this guy calls his bath-tub a pool, but that is the Wasilla mentality and the reason next summer film crews will gather in Palin’s garden for a “Take Two” the remake of “Dueling Banjos” in “Deliverance Alaska”. And for real, bathtub waves strong enough to have thrown him on the deck, it defies gravity of the situation. So, now that the angry earth has calmed down over Moron Trump denying “Climate Change”, with the “rock’n roll” settled down, time to get down to some serious business of assessing who was prepared for this…it was Not the “Big ‘Un” for Alaska. Now it appears that the unprepared, well if x-Alaskan governor Bill Sheffield is involved of course we have a “Humpty Dumpty” moment. I am talking the damage to the Alaska Railroad “infrastructure”, so what it is but for a “tourist trap” and Alaskan’s do not rely on this Casey Jones waste to support the habit of living where winter lasts way too long and what the hell is with this “Alaskan Bush People”? Did the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum furlough the patients with a one-way all expenses paid no return ticket on the Alaska Railroad? Does anybody actually watch this class act in bullshit? Getting back to serious business, the Alaska Railroad has no excuse this damage. If “Big Oil” can build an 800-mile oil pipeline that sustained “zero damage” this event that was 100 x 100 less dramatic then the 1964 Good Friday quake, engineers should be able to build tracks that are not swallowed up by the anger of Gaia. Yes, 800-miles of steel pipe went without a blemish this “quake” when we now understand that the main railroad track between Anchorage and Fairbanks has been challenged to remain level. It really doesn’t matter, as the only individuals that may be inconvenienced by the ARR not on time this time of year during the “off season” are the poor - as it is only in the off-season wherein the State of Alaska owned railroad allows for “half fare” transportation. See, “half fare” is a requirement in efforts to secure “Federal Grants”. Now this rule is generated for all transportation corridors that utilize the “Amtrak” label for passenger services, as a prerequisite. And there exists some rules and regulations for Amtrak passengers, like this “half fare” criteria. But because the Alaska Railroad is basically a “Tourist Trap”, most Alaskans cannot cough up the price of an expensive ticket to travel between the two major cities during the height of madness for trainloads of tourists rushing to Denali only to find out the Big Mountain is once again clouded over. No, there are no refunds for false advertisement! And the ARR doesn’t have to offer this “half fare” because it is stipulated that it is only required in “off peak” hours of the day. And since there is only one train south to north and back again on any given day during the “Tourist Season”, this half fare is not available for the poor folks until winter settles in and all the “Tourists” have returned home with diarrhea and pictures of clouds. And the bad thing about the “off season half fare” not fair, the Alaskan “yellow rain train” only travels once per week so you get stuck in Fairbanks for a few days, hotels are not cheap and by winter most things are shut-down! So that Federal government stipulation wherein $million$ dollar “grants” are provided requires assistance to the poor to travel, in Alaska there has not been a single “half fare” ticket ever sold. Yet the “grants” are…holy shit for real? Now the Alaska Railroad seems to have been the entity with the most damage this “quake” shake. Bill Sheffield’s office in Anchorage at the ARR headquarters was flooded again, same old toilet on overflow. Will someone please give Bill a plunger as a Christmas present! See, if you blame anything and everything on the “quake”, Uncle Sam may come through again as for years the U.S. Treasury has been very cordial to Alaska’s “House of Congress” Don Young and what is garnished from the U.S. Taxpayers to make sure this Casey Jones ridiculousness keeps on trucking. Look, the Alaska Railroad has been in bankruptcy since 1985. That was the year that Uncle Sam said enough is enough and the rail was sold, as before that it remained part of the Federal Railway System and built when Alaska was still a territory. But once the 49er became a state, the Federal government had to divest itself this kind of infrastructure that held public fascination due equity in funding - aka “pork” addiction. The “rail” went up for sale and nobody came to the auction, as it was not a viable investment for any railroad fans. It was “scrap” but to expensive to haul it away so instead of tearing it down and selling the scrap steel to Russia, the state jumped in and formed a “State Corporation”, which means no transparency. What does it all mean? Well how about another “Billion Dollar Baby Blunder” courtesy the U.S. Taxpayers. You can go onto the Bill Sheffield “financial” cesspool of this Alaska Railroad to see how the audit accountants practice the art of magic numbers. In a nutshell, 30% of the “operating revenue” is supplied by Uncle Sam for nothing in return and amounts to over a $billion$ since statehood back in 1959. And there is not yet even today a sense of urgency to make it a profitable venture, as without “strict” accountability and this intravenous from the U.S. Treasury as a routine cost of doing business in the north, no real reason to trim the costs of keeping…well the earthquake will now cost the taxpayers some more again. Which means the U.S. Taxpayers would have saved money keeping this “brat” part of the military infrastructure when nobody showed up an interest in buying “fool’s gold” back in 1985. But when you see who sits on the board, this junket of re-purposed purchased on the cheap scrap of steel is a vice for the “Tourist” industry, and there are special interests that make boatloads of loot with this yearly procession of travelers enjoying Alaska - courtesy the U.S. Taxpayers getting Don Young strangled again and again and again. Therefore by decree of the Town Crier, my sentiment with this damage to the ego of Bill Sheffield because his toilet keeps overflowing, time for the people of Alaska to demand the selling of the rail - letting it go into privatized hands and then Alaska will no longer be a “Tourist Trap” and if that rail ever starts moving again, that train south should have a special delivery for the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum with the creep shows that have made my Alaska a joke! And wait there is more! Somebody with an Alaskan connection gets $millions$ in IRS Track Maintenance kick-backs, and this is an entity in cahoots with the Alaska Railroad as the “COALition” and did that U.S. Taxpayers’ money actually go towards making sure the track wouldn’t fall apart in a minor quake? Fleecing of America, that’s what happens so far and away up north when “transparency” is a two-headed snake.