Carpenter Eric Wolford, 30, for nine years has commuted to work at Anchorage job sites.

Dropping off a coworker Tuesday evening at the park-and-ride lot at Trunk Road and the Parks Highway, he paused to explain why he exchanged his three-quarter-ton Chevrolet pickup truck for his wife's Honda sedan. The truck cost him $100 a week in gas: The Honda costs half that much.

"Once prices started shooting way above $3 was when I decided to stop driving the truck," he said.

Like a lot of commuters, Wolford said he'd rather take a train than drive.

"I say forget the bridge," he said, referring to a plan to link Point MacKenzie and Anchorage with a bridge over the Knik Arm. "Let's put the money into commuter rail."

With gasoline on the threshold of $4 a gallon at service stations in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, commuter rail, long on the back burner of civic affairs, is starting to look a lot more attractive.

Pat Gamble, president of the Alaska Railroad Corp., told a Palmer audience this month that gas at $5 a gallon would make regular service between Wasilla and Anchorage more feasible. Other hurdles must be crossed, he said, but the railroad is building one self-propelled car for potential use on that route. A trial run is expected this winter.