Princess Alaska Rail Schedule

[lstone19]

Princess is advertising that this year, Alaska cruisetours will go by train from the ship to Talkeetna and Denali and v.v in one day (instead of having an overnight in Anchorage). Has anyone seen a schedule for this as I'm really curious how they're going to do it?

 

In the past, as most people know, the Princess cars went on the rear of the scheduled Alaska RR service between Anchorage and Fairbanks. But I can't see that working with their new "McKinley Express" service (as they're calling it). Anchorage to Whittier is 2.5 hours by rail plus you need to allow switching time in Anchorage. Since the ARR train northbound leaves Anchorage at 8:15am, that would mean the Princess train would need to leave Whittier no later than 5:15am. Southbound is worse (make that impossible) since the ARR train arrives Anchorage at 8:15pm so the Princess cars couldn't get to Whittier before 11:00pm (and that assumes no delays) and Princess has the ship leaving at 9:30pm this year.

 

So I'm assuming Princess is running their own train as a charter all the way between Whittier and Denali. If so, has anyone seen any information on what sort of schedule this will run?

[mii]

You might stand a better chance of having your questions answered at the Alaska Board. There is a wealth of info over there.

 

Marilyn