Creativity could improve Valley-Anchorage rail service

Rail transit for the Mat-Su Valley was suggested several decades ago. The railroad did not like the idea and had even considered dropping passenger service like the Lower 48 railroads had.

Rather than just say no, the railroad studied it to death or into blind, unworkable alley. So if you folks in the Valley want rail transit, you are going to have form a group and study it and not depend on the railroad to deliver a workable rail transit. It is your railroad and it should serve you.

This is as far as I was able to get. I had lined up two surplus military buses in excellent condition, which the ARR could have had for the asking. It would have cost $50,000 each, bid, to put retractable steel wheels on them with hydraulic motors. They would have needed congressional legislation to operate on the Alaska Railroad, which Senator Stevens was willing to do.

The buses could have picked up passengers in Wasilla/ Palmer and driven onto the tracks then driven off in Anchorage and made distribution of passengers, but there was no interest on the part of the railroad. Railroad officials wanted to make a big deal of it with stations.

Just a little later railroad officials spent $250,000 on a study to placate and stall moving forward on rail transit from the Valley. I understand they are just now completing yet another study. The $250,000 the ARR spent on that first study would have funded several years of operation, and it would have known what the public wanted and what would work. Until you do it, it is just conjecture. I told them so, and they admitted the logic, but it also rains on a duck. Since I could neither get a letter in the Frontiersman nor the Anchorage News, it simply died.

The ARR did not want to do it then and most likely it does not want to do rail transit now; only public opinion will force the issue. The ARR wants stations and to build the size of the ARR. I do not think stations are necessary with buses, but I admit they could be handy but not at the start. You have to prove the concept first. Rail buses would have worked great for Girdwood. At that time the road was still on the mountainside with lots of avalanches and the ARR was out on mud flats not subject to the avalanches.

While the rail bus will take longer, the time on rail bus can be spent doing other things, like reading or using a laptop or even having breakfast — the time driving is dead lost.

I suggest used school buses to start. You will need an engine that is double end and can drive off either end. One end provides power to the normal drive wheels and the other end provides hydraulic power to steel rail wheels. Having a double-ended engine would probably mean re-signing the buses. If my memory serves me correctly Cummins makes engines that can drive from either end.

Keep it simple until the system is ready for second generation of buses. Start with the fare low. When you fill the buses and have more passengers than space, increase the fare. You do not have to study it to death, just do it. Then you will know; the rest is conjecture. The ball is in your court; good luck and keep it simple.

Jerry McCutcheon is an Anchorage resident.