White Pass & Yukon Route

The White Pass & Yukon Route is the railway the Klondike gold rush built. When gold was found on Bonanza Creek in 1896, tens of thousands of stampeders landed at Skagway and hauled their supplies over the Coast Mountains on foot. Construction of a 3 ft narrow-gauge line began in May 1898, and by 20 February 1899 its rails had reached White Pass: almost 3,000 ft of climb in 20 miles, on grades of almost 3.9 %, blasted out of solid granite.

The line starts in Alaska, which is why it is filed here under the United States, but beyond the summit it runs through British Columbia to Carcross, in Yukon. It closed in 1982, when the mines it served shut down; since 1988 it has run for travellers, and in summer its trains leave Skagway almost every hour.

Most people ride the Summit Excursion, a round trip of 2.5 to 2.75 hours that never leaves Alaska and needs no passport. Longer trains continue to Fraser, Bennett and Carcross.

Trains board at the depot on Broadway in Skagway or right beside the cruise ships on the town's docks, and set off up the valley of the Skagway River. Within a few miles the line leaves the valley floor and starts to climb the mountainside on a narrow shelf, the grade rising more than two feet in every hundred. The route follows the one Captain William Moore and Skookum Jim scouted before the rush, and the conductor's commentary picks out the landmarks: Bridal Veil Falls, Inspiration Point, the line of George Brackett's toll road, and the Trail of '98 worn into the rock where the stampeders walked.

Near the top the line crosses Dead Horse Gulch, where the railway's old steel cantilever bridge still stands beside the tunnel and bridge that replaced it in 1969. At milepost 20.4 and 2,865 ft the train reaches the summit of White Pass and the Canadian border, marked by flags and a small log cabin. Summit Excursion trains swing round the Summit Loop, finished in 2019, and head back down; trains going up and down pass one another at Boulder, Glacier and the summit.

Beyond the summit

Longer trains carry on into British Columbia, across a bare, lake-strewn upland to Fraser, where the line first meets the South Klondike Highway and Canadian customs. At Bennett, where the White Pass and Chilkoot trails met and a tent city built boats for the Klondike, the train stops for 45 minutes by the 1903 station and St Andrew's Church. Lunch is served aboard along the length of Lake Bennett, and the train rumbles over a bridge into Carcross, where the last spike was driven on 29 July 1900.

The trains

Steam ran the line until 1954. The railway then bought General Electric diesels, the rounded "shovelnose" units of the 1950s and 60s, and ALCO road-switchers from the 1960s, all painted green and yellow. In 2020 came six National Railway Equipment diesels built in Illinois, the 30-class, the first new locomotives since the 1970s. Steam survives in No. 73, a Baldwin 2-8-2 built for the railway in 1947, which hauls the Steam Summit Loop Excursion.

The coaches are named after lakes and rivers of Alaska, British Columbia and Yukon. The four oldest, built by Jackson & Sharp in 1889 and 1891, are older than the railway itself.

Trains run from 30 April to 7 October 2026. All times are Alaska time, which the railway calls "rail time", including at the Canadian stations.

Summit Excursion times change with the day and the cruise ships in port. On 30 September and 6 October 2026 the booking system offered departures at 09:00, 13:00 and 14:15; on 7 October, the last day, at 10:15 and 14:15. There is no Summit Excursion on 2–4 May, 26–27 September or 1 and 3–5 October 2026.

The Bennett Scenic Journey rides the train one way and a motorcoach the other: train out at 07:45, or bus out at 09:30 and train back. From Yukon, a bus leaves Whitehorse at 07:30 for the 10:15 train from Fraser, reaching Skagway at 11:50, and returns at 14:00.

Good to know:

• Bring a passport for anything beyond the summit. The Summit Excursion needs none.
• Cruise passengers can book through their ship and board on the pier.
• Every car on the longer trains has a toilet, and the Summit Excursion has lift-equipped cars; tell the railway when booking.

Times as of September 2026, from the railway's excursion pages and its booking system. Confirm before travelling on wpyr.com (opens in a new tab).

You can book directly with the railway online or on 1-800-343-7373, independently of any cruise. The Summit Excursion costs $155 for adults and $77.50 for children aged 3 to 12; under-threes ride free. The Bennett Scenic Journey to Carcross is $289, the Steam Summit Loop Excursion $299.99, and one-way tickets cost $108 to Fraser and $210 to Carcross, with children at half fare.

Cancelling costs $10 a person, and a refund is only possible up to 24 hours before departure. Fares checked September 2026 at wpyr.com (opens in a new tab); US dollars.

No rail pass covers the White Pass & Yukon Route. It is privately owned and sells its own tickets; Amtrak's USA Rail Pass is valid only on Amtrak's own services, and Interrail and Eurail do not apply in North America.

The only reductions are the railway's own: half fare for children aged 3 to 12, and free travel for under-threes. For everyone else the answer is simple: book the train you want directly.

Checked September 2026 against wpyr.com (opens in a new tab) and amtrak.com (opens in a new tab).

The railway runs between two gold-rush towns: Skagway, at the head of the Inside Passage, and Carcross, on the lakes of southern Yukon. Around each lie the relics of the stampede and some of the North's strangest scenery.

The railway's own advice is to stay the night in Skagway: once the cruise ships sail in the evening, the town is quiet, and the first trains leave early. These are two historic houses a short walk from the depot.

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