Chase community residents are frustrated with the updated Alaska Railroad Trainman’s Walk. The Railroad completed the repairs on the Talkeetna River bridge and the Trainman’s Walk last fall.
Residents use the Trainman’s Walk to access their homes off Chase Trail. It allows for pedestrians and smaller ATVs to walk and ride alongside the tracks without trespassing on the railroad.
Chase Community Council Chair Mike Wood says the initial design was for a 50-inch walkway. Residents requested that bollards be placed at 47 inches to keep larger ATVs out. Wood says the community’s concern is for the Chase Trail. He says it can’t support the added weight of larger vehicles. But the new trail was too narrow.
Alaska Railroad’s Director of External Affairs Meghan Clemens says the new walkway was more rigid than the previous one. Some ATVs that had been able to get through the old walk, could no longer fit. A plan to increase the walkway to 50 inches this spring was already underway. Clemens noted the recent ATV trespass incident that resulted in no injuries, but did cause minor damage to a train. Wood says the narrower walkway had caused damage to community members’ ATVs.
When the Alaska Railroad proposed the work to the bridge and Trainman’s Walk, Chase Community Council established the community’s stance through two formal resolutions. Chase Community Council representative Sara Hogan says that each was unanimously passed by the Council. The first was the Compact ATV Community Declaration in August 2023, which designates the community as a “Compact ATV Community,” limiting trail access to ATVs that can pass through 47-inch bollards. The Dynamic Bollard Resolution, passed in October 2023, supports the construction of a 50-inch wide Trainman’s Walk with bollards on each end to enforce the 47-inch restriction.
Now the Alaska Railroad’s plan is to increase the Trainman’s Walk to 60 inches, which will allow most ATVs to access the trail without problems. Clemens says though they had anticipated widening the Walk this month, material delays have set the project back to August. Hogan says the Chase Community remains supportive of the 50-inch Walk with bollards at 47 inches to ensure access while protecting the integrity of the trails and maintaining the compact ATV standard.
Clemens says they expect to keep the community updated with a construction timeline later this summer.
