It’s time to hit the road running

In a fairy-tale world, commuters could avoid traffic congestion and skip between Anchorage and the Mat-Su along a magical yellow brick road.

But as long as we have to live and make do in the real world, finding solutions to the transportation dilemma of keeping these fast-growing communities connected is hardly a fairy-tale challenge. That’s why we were pleased Friday to see that connectivity between the Valley and Anchorage was one of the major talking points at a joint meeting of the Mat-Su Borough and Anchorage assemblies.

Valley assemblyman Jim Sykes outlined an Alaska Railroad plan that could finally connect the Valley and Anchorage via commuter rail. The idea of using rail to transport masses of people between the Mat-Su and Anchorage isn’t new. But until recently, there haven’t been those masses of people moving between the Valley and Anchorage to economically justify such a project.

Rail is more than pie-in-the-sky dreaming these days, Sykes said, adding that the Alaska Railroad “really seems seriously interested at a level that I haven’t seen for the past 25 years.”

Helping make that happen seemed to be the sentiment around the table, and the idea was embraced to the point that Anchorage assemblywoman Amy Demboski volunteered to serve on a joint Mat-Su/Anchorage transportation committee.

That’s one idea we need to put on the rails immediately. It seems both the Mat-Su and Anchorage are ready to collaborate to help solve their mutual connectivity issues, and solutions like commuter rail and a Knik Arm bridge will require cooperation and compromise on both ends of the road.

While each entity’s top priority is to look out for itself, we need decision-makers who are also willing to put together a transportation committee that can truly put the entire Southcentral region No. 1. Too often have we seen ideas — some good, some bad — go unexplored or unrealized because the two sides of Knik Arm can’t find compromise. Such a group could also help bring the Mat-Su Borough and Anchorage assemblies together to help mediate future talks.

That the Mat-Su strongly favors a Knik Arm bridge, while Anchorage seems to be lukewarm to the idea, is another example of where a transportation committee could be helpful.

Friday’s joint meeting was a good first step. Let’s take another, then another, and before long, who knows? Maybe we can build that yellow brick road after all.