Scenic route
Coastal Classic
Anchorage → Seward · United States
- Distance
- 183 km
- Fastest time
- 4 h 35 min
- Top speed
- 95 km/h
- Operator
- Alaska Railroad
- Train
- GoldStar dome & Adventure Class cars
- Countries
- United States
- In service since
- 1923
- Runs
- daily mid-May–mid-Sep
Hugs the bore-tide flats of Turnagain Arm, then climbs past Spencer Glacier into country no road reaches.
The Coastal Classic leaves Anchorage at dawn and spends its first hour pinned between the Chugach peaks and the grey tidal flats of Turnagain Arm, where beluga whales chase the bore tide. At Portage it swings south into the Kenai Mountains, grinding up the Placer River valley past Spencer Glacier and over the Grandview summit through terrain no road has ever reached. The descent follows the Trail Lakes down to Seward, a fishing port ringed by the mountains of Kenai Fjords National Park.
Along the way
- Turnagain Arm bore tide
- Girdwood ski country
- Spencer Glacier
- Grandview summit
- Kenai Lake
- Resurrection Bay at Seward
More scenic routes
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- West Highland Line Glasgow → Mallaig
More train routes in United States.