The Alaska Railroad starts the first U.S. rail shipments of liquefied natural gas, sending two loaded 40-foot LNG containers from Anchorage to Fairbanks as part of a demonstration. Seven more round-trips over four weeks will follow.
“We’re going to take the information that we get in terms of our efficiencies, the logistics of moving this stuff, find out where we can improve, what we can improve, and the things we can’t improve, and start making decisions as to whether we can make this a line of business, said Tim Sullivan, manager of external affairs.
It will also depend on whether Fairbanks Natural Gas LLC, a company providing Cook Inlet natural gas to about 1,000 customers in Fairbanks, will want to use the railroad as a shipper.
Planning and applying for a Federal Rail Administration permit was a task that covered several years. The FRA in October issued a two-year permit that runs through December 2017. It authorizes three roundtrip trains per week. Each could carry 12 tanks per train.
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