Riding the Rails: The White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad

A railway born of gold

When tens of thousands of stampeders struggled over the brutal mountain passes in 1897-98, the need for a railway was obvious. Built for roughly $10 million using little more than hand tools, black powder, and regional timber, the line was completed in just 27 months, opening in 1900 as the first major civil engineering project ever attempted above the 60th parallel. It climbs nearly 2,900 feet from sea level at Skagway to the White Pass summit in only 20 miles, one of the steepest railway grades anywhere in the world, and that engineering achievement was formally recognized in 1994, when it was named an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, a designation shared with the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, and the Panama Canal.

The railway carried freight, ore, and passengers for decades, and later played a real if lesser-known role in World War II, hauling workers and materials that helped build the Alaska Highway itself. Long after the gold rush passenger traffic faded, the line survived on lead-zinc ore trucked in from the Faro mine in central Yukon and railed out through Skagway, a genuinely unglamorous freight operation that quietly kept the railway alive for decades.

Closed, and reopened

That ore traffic didn't last forever. When metal prices collapsed and the mines that fed the railway shut down, the line ceased operations entirely on October 8, 1982, ending 82 years of continuous service. It sat dormant for six years before reopening in May 1988, reinvented as a heritage tourist railway rather than a working freight line, with track extended to meet cruise ships at the Skagway pier. Service was gradually restored further into the Yukon, reaching Fraser, BC, in 1989 and Bennett in 1992. In 2018, the railway was sold to Carnival Corporation, the cruise line giant, for roughly $290 million US, a reminder of just how tightly the line's modern survival is tied to cruise tourism through Skagway.

What the ride is like

The train grinds upward through a landscape that changes by the minute: coastal rainforest gives way to sheer rock walls, cascading waterfalls, glacial valleys, and finally the high, austere country of the pass. Along the way, look for Dead Horse Gulch, a grim reminder of the thousands of pack animals that died attempting this route during the gold rush, and Inspiration Point, looking back down over Skagway Harbour and the Sawtooth Range. Highlights include the towering steel cantilever bridge sites, tunnels blasted through rock, and views back down toward the sea. Old-time railroaders called the steam locomotives "hogs" for their enormous fuel appetite, which made an engineer a "hoghead," and one of the line's most famous, J.D. True, spent 40 years running the route and wrote two books of stories about it, still sold at the Skagway depot today.

Options for travellers

Three named excursions run from Skagway: the White Pass Summit Excursion, a round trip to the 2,865-foot summit; the Fraser Meadows Steam Excursion, which continues behind a historic steam locomotive to Fraser, BC; and the longer Bennett Scenic Journey, running the full length of Lake Bennett to the old gold-rush town of Bennett Station. The two longer routes cross the border and require a passport.

Bennett Station also serves a genuinely practical purpose for hikers: anyone doing the Canadian side of the Chilkoot Trail typically starts or ends at Bennett, and the train (or a connecting bus) is the standard way to actually get there and back, locals and Chilkoot hikers alike rely on it for exactly this.

In winter, when the railway otherwise sits quiet, it comes back to life a few times each December for the Santa Train, a genuine local tradition rather than a tourist gimmick. Yukoners have been riding it for years as a holiday outing, well worth knowing about if you're around in the darker months and want a reason to ride the line outside the usual summer season.

The railway's imprint on Carcross itself goes beyond the ride. The historic Carcross Station, built in 1910 and designated a national heritage railway station in 1991, sits right in the heart of the community, and Carcross Commons developed around that historic railway core. The tracks and the station building are still very much part of the streetscape, giving the whole area a lived-in, historic feel that a newer development simply couldn't replicate.

Tips

Sit on the correct side of the car for the best drops and vistas, staff will advise, and move to the open platforms for photos. Dress in layers, as the high country is cooler, and check border and sailing schedules, since some itineraries connect with cruise traffic in Skagway.

Whether you're a rail enthusiast, a history buff, or simply after a spectacular half-day, the White Pass & Yukon Route delivers a journey the gold-rush stampeders could scarcely have imagined, all from the comfort of a vintage rail car.