AL: Coalition pitches winter commuter rail runs between Anchorage and Mat-Su

It's an idea that's been around for more than 40 years: commuter rail service between Anchorage and Mat-Su, where tens of thousands of people hit the Glenn Highway for trips into the city.

Now rail proponents say it's time to put the train on the tracks.

Under a preliminary proposal from the Alaska Commuter Rail Coalition, a two-year winter train pilot project could start in fall 2026 — but only if it gets funding and government buy-in, fueling skepticism that this transportation concept that's been circulating for so long will actually get off the ground.

The first commuter rail study came out in 1979. The concept has been studied every five or 10 years since, said Brian Lindamood, vice president of engineering for the Alaska Railroad, a state-owned corporation.

A pilot project showing how the service would play out is the only logical next step, Lindamood said.

"It's time to stop updating old studies and actually put some kind of test program in service so we can basically learn what we don't know," he said this week.

Supporters say commuter trains could relieve gridlock on the Glenn Highway, improve safety and reduce fossil fuel consumption. Between the traffic tie-ups and booming population, the demand seems to be there, according to Andrea Feniger, a longtime member of the Alaska Commuter Rail Coalition.

State estimates put the number of vehicles traveling between Mat-Su and Anchorage at more than 31,000 every workday. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough is Alaska's fastest-growing region, with more than 117,600 residents tallied by the U.S. census last year.

Up to 1,600 people said they'd ride a commuter train back in 2009, said Feniger, who serves as Alaska chapter director for the Sierra Club.

"The population, particularly in Mat-Su, has just exploded since the last time this idea was considered," she said.

The pilot project would take place from October through April, before the railroad starts running summer passenger trains. Initial proposals call for two, six-car trains each morning and evening. Trains would stop in Wasilla and in Anchorage at Ship Creek and the Bill Sheffield Alaska Railroad Depot at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

Railroad officials say it's possible the ride-share vans that travel the Glenn between Mat-Su and Anchorage, many to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, could shuttle workers from rail terminals instead.

Most of the nation's more than 30 commuter rail systems are heavily subsidized, with fares and transit agency revenue in 2023 covering under a quarter of total costs, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

The most recent estimates put the cost of the pilot project between Anchorage and Mat-Su at roughly $10 million each year, according to Feniger, though the railroad is working on firmer numbers. The cost doesn't include a new siding section of track that would need to be built at Wasilla.

"We've got 10, 15, 20 million dollars that's going to have to come from someplace," Lindamood said.

One funding option would be federal grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation that generally require a 20% local match from a municipal entity such as Anchorage and Mat-Su.

Members of the general public, including elected officials who might need to sign off on funding, tend to be wary of movement on commuter rail after years of fruitless talk.

Representatives of the railroad and the commuter rail coalition pitched the pilot project at a July meeting of the Anchorage Assembly Transportation Committee. That marked the first official unveiling of the concept to a local government, Feniger said.

Assembly Chair Christopher Constant commented during the meeting that he'd been hearing about commuter train plans for 30 years.

"I don't see millions of dollars for us to figure this out," Constant said, calling the concept a regularly returning story that doesn't ever come to fruition. "I don't know why it never gets traction, but it never gets traction."

In Mat-Su, commuter rail is expected to come up in the long-range planning process as local officials establish a transit program under a recently formed Metropolitan Planning Organization, according to Kim Sollien, executive director of Mat-Su Valley Planning for Transportation.

In terms of local funding for rail, Sollien said the borough has provided $1.5 million to the City of Wasilla to support the depot and is also supporting regional public transit.

The railroad "gets lots of federal transit authority funding that could be used to pay for a winter pilot program," she noted in a message.

Railroad spokesperson Meghan Clemens said those federal grant awards are not operating funds but instead are capital-specific funding for track rehabilitation and bridge repairs or replacement.

The commuter rail concept has circulated for years. A $2.3 million train station complete with heated bathrooms opened in 2004 at the Alaska State Fairgrounds in Palmer, raising hopes for regular passenger service that never materialized, though an annual fair train is running again this year.

The Alaska Railroad again pitched the idea in 2014 with no results. Gov. Bill Walker included a $4.5 million earmark to revitalize dormant commuter rail plans in his capital budget proposal in 2017 and established a task force intended to come up with options between Anchorage and Mat-Su.

In 2019, Gov. Mike Dunleavy disbanded the commuter rail task force.