WASILLA — Attendees walking into Evangelo’s Friday to see the Alaska Railroad’s projects for the year might have been surprised to see the railroad could fill a third of the room with placards explaining Valley projects.

By now most people have heard of the Mat-Su Borough’s plans for rail service to Port MacKenzie. But what about new bathrooms at the Talkeetna station, plans to shore up the Matanuska River bridge or straightening tracks in Wasilla?

The Talkeetna bathrooms, according to railroad documents, will cost $500,000, which the railroad got from the federal government’s economic stimulus program.

ROBERT DeBERRY/Frontiersman Alaska Railroad Corp. representative Brian Lindamood, left, gets in a heated conversation about the Point Mackenzie rail spur with a Valley resident who asked not to be identified Thursday at Evangelo’s restaurant in Wasilla.

“The new facilities will eliminate the need to rent port-a-potties,” the railroad says succinctly in its summation of the project.

The Matanuska River bridge will have its timber supports replaced with concrete and steel this year, the railroad said.

As for Wasilla, the rail-straightening project is targeted at the railroad area south of the Parks Highway in the Fairview Loop area, specifically Miles 154 to 158 of the railroad.

The project will go in phases, the first will bring it from Mile 154 (just before the tracks bend to follow, more or less, Wasilla Creek) to railroad Milepost 156, which is right before where the tracks cross Fairview Loop near the road’s intersection with old Matanuska Road. The second phase will straighten tracks to railroad Milepost 158, just before the tracks make another 90-degree turn to meet back up with the Parks Highway and follow it into downtown Wasilla.

The railroad says the upgrades will allow trains to go faster while avoiding derailments. But in terms of project goals more likely to have an impact on Valley motorists, the project would take out five “at-grade crossings.” Which is to say traffic will be routed over or under the tracks in five places where roads currently meet, most notably where the tracks cross Fairview Loop.

As always, that depends on funding. The railroad says the $4.9 million it has dedicated to the project is going to studies, land acquisition and engineering. Phase One alone, the railroad says, will run to $30 million.

On the other side of the room were placards dealing with something somewhat more conceptual — commuter rail.

There were possible train schedules laid out and possible locations for parking garages and the like. The railroad says it plans to spend $225,000 in Federal Transit Authority funds to study the idea. That’s in addition to $200,000 already spent between 2000 and 2002.

So far, the railroad has straightened tracks between Anchorage and the Valley, which, it says, has shaved nearly a half hour off of runs between the two areas. Now, the railroad says, trains can get to Anchorage in 52 minutes.

But the most controversial placard at Evangelo’s that night was, hands down, the one explaining the rail extension to the port.

Well, maybe not “controversial,” per se.

“I’d say popular,” said project manager Brian Lindamood, who’d just finished explaining the project to a few feisty locals.

He said the project right now is in the process of being studied. There were a lot of lines for potential rail routes on the placard behind him. Lindamood said that was by design.

In the environmental study phase, he said, “We can go in and ask for a specific (route) but we didn’t want to, especially because there was a lot of concern with the residents,”

He said once there is a draft report — perhaps sometime in the next 45 days — it will be put out for public comment. Then in the summer or fall a final report will come out.

“That final document will have a rout recommendation,” he said and the railroad will, he hopes, get a license to build tracks.

Is that it, then, besides finding money? Not by a long shot, Lindamood said. There’s still permitting, design, and property acquisition to be done. Then the funding will be needed.

He said the borough is seeking funding right now. So the funding could come before the other pieces.

And if rail gets all the way to Point MacKenzie, wouldn’t it be a short jump to get to Anchorage, perhaps on the proposed Knik Arm Bridge?

“Our position is that rail should be on the bridge,” Lindamood said. “But we’ve been told, ‘No.’”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.