Skagway Alaska USA - The world famous tourist train in Skagway is cutting dozens of jobs.
Twenty-seven employees of the White Pass & Yukon Route (WP&YR) were recently sent letters from the company, telling them their positions were being abolished.
Many of those employees were seasonal coach cleaners.
"They're a group of people that work really hard during the summertime cleaning the coach cars that we operate during the tour season. If we're not running tours, there's no coach cars to clean," said Tory Korn, the company's director of business development.
The job losses come after the Canadian government's recent announcement of an extension to the cruise ship ban, until February 2022.
"It's pretty devastating to our business, and we're really concerned about even our ability to reopen for the 2021 season now," Korn says.
He's hopeful there might be some limited cruise ship traffic from the lower 48 states.
Most of the scenic railway's customers are cruise ship passengers on day trips from Skagway.
The train travels as far as Carcross before heading back to Skagway.
Korn says due to the 2020 cruise season being cancelled, many of the railway's now-terminated employees haven't been working since October 2019.
"We did have some obligations under the union contract to call people back at a certain point, but there's just total uncertainty on whether we're going to have a season or not," he said.
Korn is hopeful the U.S. and Canadian governments can work together to allow a limited cruise season out of Seattle which could have some ships travelling to Southeast Alaska.
Fighting to Survive
With no tours and no revenue, Korn says the company is just taking steps to survive.
He says WP&YR is looking at the long term, but isn't sure how many seasons it will be able to maintain like this.
Korn hopes there can be some sort of path forward, or "something to allow at least some cruise ships to sail out of Seattle if they get the go ahead from Centre of Disease Control," he said.
"So we can salvage something of a season."
Chris MacIntyre.
United States maritime regulations mean that in order to operate most cruise lines travelling to the Alaskan coast must include a stop in a foreign port. Canada has banned ships carrying more than 100 people from calling at Canadian ports until February 2022. With large American cruise ships prohibited from stopping at Victoria, British Columbia, it looks pretty bleak for Victoria, Skagway, and the railway this year.
