in resource deposits in Alaska and in Yukon and British Columbia, Canada, the development of which depends on investment in new rail links between existing networks. Specifically, although a rail link from Alaska to the rest of the North American rail system has been under consideration since 1916 (1) and the mutually dependent eco- nomics of large-scale northern resource and railway development are compelling, the plans for the link have never come to fruition. From 2005 through 2007, an extensive Phase I feasibility study was performed for the Yukon government and the State of Alaska (1) to determine the extent of a business case for investment in the Alaska–Canada Rail Link (ACRL) as part of an emerging North Pacific Rim trade corridor. In the study, a few proposed mineral resource development or extension projects enabled a revenue freight forecast for iron and coal, mineral concentrates, pipeline construc- tion and resupply, and Asian intermodal container imports for a 50-year project life cycle of $35 billion and 1,989 million tons (Fig- ure 1). Thus, the proposed rail link is economically promising and potentially economically profitable, depending on assumptions made on the discount rate on investment and the types and numbers of resources that would be developed near the rail. The Phase I report also discusses the likely public investment needed to bring this long rail route to fruition. The new study and the associated GIS tool described in this paper augment and expand on the work done in the Phase I feasibility study by analyzing more mineral commodities than were considered in the Phase I study to provide a more complete and detailed picture of potential mineral revenues and train freight volumes. These developments enable users to perform detailed sen- sitivity analyses to determine if mineral occurrence development could be part of an economically feasible rail route extension. The current study, which focuses on a 100-km-wide corridor sur- rounding the proposed rail link as an area likely to become more accessible if rail links are installed, includes a North Slope spur par- alleling the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. However, the developed GIS- based framework is extensible to the entire Alaska and Northern Canada region, or any region for which mineral occurrence data are associated with a mineral deposit model (discussed below). The second primary motivation for this study and tool is the pos- sibility of national climate change legislation in the near future. In order to incorporate carbon caps or taxes into their business deci- sions, decision makers in the energy, resource development, and transportation sectors will need tools to estimate the impact of trans- portation carbon emissions for the life cycle of new projects. The MOREV tool includes a mobile-source carbon emissions calculator that will assist with these needs. Expanding Alaska–Canada Rail Jointly Visualizing Revenue Freight, Development Cost, Mineral Commodity Value, and Impact of Carbon Dioxide Colin Brooks, Helen Kourous-Harrigan, Mike Billmire, Paul Metz, D. Eric Keefauver, Robert Shuchman, Richard Dobson, K. Arthur Endsley, and Mark Taylor 95 Recent changes in global markets have raised the value of mineral resources in northwestern Canada and Alaska. The development of these resources depends on the economics of rail infrastructure expansion. Transportation decision makers need revenue and cost assessments to plan investment in rail infrastructure. A tool based on a geographic information system was developed for mineral resource evaluation and visualization. The tool incorporated expert-augmented mineral resource data for more than 22,000 occurrences in the region. The tool included the proposed Alaska–Canada Rail Link, which would connect Alaska rail to the lower 48 states. Users selected locations of known mineral occurrences near actual or proposed rail routes and used statistical min- eral deposit models to estimate resource sizes and extractable value over time by combining current or user-entered commodity prices with multimodal revenue freight volumes and optimally routed transportation costs. The tool translated the revenue scenario into likely carbon dioxide emissions according to the transport of mineral concentrates to regional and international destinations. Users could select and visualize multi- modal transportation networks to understand and minimize mobile- source carbon emissions as part of their scenarios. Statistical estimates of mine capital expenditure and operating costs were also calculated according to type. The tool calculated the gross metal value of a mineral occurrence with statistical deposit models. This index was linked to the positive regional economic impact associated with the developed resource in terms of jobs, taxes and royalties, and resupply. This information helped decision makers close the loop on infrastructure investment assessments. The mineral occurrence estimation and visualization (MOREV) tool presented in this paper is a geographic information system (GIS)– based tool that provides valuable support for decision makers and stakeholders considering freight rail extensions, mine development, and other related activities in Alaska and Canada. The development of this tool was motivated by two primary factors. First, changes in global commodity markets have renewed interest C. Brooks, H. Kourous-Harrigan, M. Billmire, D. E. Keefauver, R. Shuchman, R. Dobson, and K. A. Endsley, Michigan Tech Research Institute, Michigan Tech- nological University, 3600 Green Court, Suite 100, Ann Arbor, MI 48105. P. Metz and M. Taylor, Department of Mining and Geological Engineering, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, P.O. Box 755800, Fairbanks, AK 99775-5800. Corresponding author: H. Kourous-Harrigan, helen.harrigan@mtu.edu. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2261, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2011, pp. 95–105. DOI: 10.3141/2261-11