Alaskan Railroad is an independent, stand-alone railroad operation not connected to any other rail service in North America. As a result, rail shipments between Alaska and the rest of North America must be shipped by truck for thousands of miles or loaded onto ocean-going cargo vessels and transported by sea. Alaskan Railroad recently began talks with the nation of Canada about expanding its railroad lines to connect with the North American railway system. Figure 6.34 summarizes the various rail segments (and associated costs in millions of U.S. dollars) that could be built. The North American railroad system currently provides service to New Hazelton and Chetwynd. Alaskan Railroad would like to expand its railway to be able to reach both of these cities from Skagway and Fairbanks.

FIGURE 6.34

a. Implement an optimization model to determine the least expensive way to connect the city of Skagway to New Hazelton and Chetwynd and also connect Fairbanks to these same cities.
b. What is the optimal solution?

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Fairbanks 338 S10.0 $20.0 5 Carmacks S20.1 $19.6 $37.4 S45.3 S25.6 Whitehorse 4 E Watson Lake $10.3 $20.1 $144 $21.7 7 Fort Nelson Skagway 31.0 S38.8 Boya Lake$24.7 $24.9 New Hazelton9 10 Chetwynd