Northern rail link to help missile defence

A rail link between Alaska and Canada, proposed as a faster way to transport natural resources, would also enable the United States to support anti-ballistic missile silos and military bases, a new study says.

The report by a Boston firm says the link would benefit the Canadian and U.S. economies and make it easier for the U.S. military to move its troops through Canada to worldwide theaters of operation, such as North Korea.

The link would require 1,500 kilometres of new track, from the current Alaska railroad terminus near Eielson Air Force Base to Fort St. John or Fort Nelson in northeastern British Columbia, which are linked to Canada’s national railroad system.

The link would be able to provide support to missile-defense interceptor silos being built at Fort Greely, Alaska and missile-tracking radar on Shemya in the Aleutian Islands, says the report by Charles River Associates, prepared for the Yukon government and obtained by The Associated Press.

The railroad, costing US $1.15 billion to $2.3 billion, would allow the U.S. to develop an Alaska port to station up to three missile defense ships in the northern Pacific, outside Korean territorial waters, the report said.

Last week, Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie and Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski signed a memorandum of understanding, agreeing to split the estimated $5 million cost of the study, which will be finished by June 2006.