Public invited to eye railroad plans

WASILLA — The Alaska Railroad is planning an open house Wednesday to talk about a long list of Mat-Su area projects.

The list includes the much-discussed plan to extend rail service to the borough’s fledgling Port MacKenzie, the project to re-align rails in Wasilla, new bathrooms at the Talkeetna train depot and rehabilitation of the Matanuska River railroad bridge.

The railroad also will talk about its track rehabilitation program and its positive train control program that seeks to add computers to the communication links between trains and dispatchers.

The Port MacKenzie Rail Extension project is still awaiting word on a preferred route from the federal government. The routes still on the table all connect to the main rail line as it follows the Parks Highway. There are alternatives that would connect the routes just north of Willow, further south but still north of Houston, further south past Houston and in Big Lake.

The railroad said it still plans to have design work for the project complete by 2011. The state has lately been pouring money into the project, which has already begun construction on the railroad loop at the route’s terminus at the port.

When the railroad came to town last year, this was the most popular display, with many locals worried about having train tracks running through their communities.

Further south, the realignment project for Wasilla’s tracks refers mainly to those rails in the Fairview Loop area. The railroad says that right now it is snapping up land along the route. To the west of Seward Meridian Parkway, the new route would straighten out a couple of curves. To the east it would move traffic significantly further to the south.

On the topic of commuter rail, the railroad says it is currently updating studies it has done on the topic. Those studies cost $200,000 and were initially wrapped up in 2002. The railroad put another $50,000 into updating ridership numbers and plans to spend more money on a second phase of updating the plans.

Things like the railway station near the Palmer Fairgrounds and the station at Ted Stevens International Airport are pieces of infrastructure already in place with commuter rail in mind.

That project to straighten the tracks in Wasilla is another piece the railroad said it embarked upon with commuter traffic in mind. The railroad says that with straighter tracks already built starting in 1999, its estimates for commute times between Ship Creek in Anchorage and the Glenn-Parks highway interchange in the Valley dropped from 78 to 52 minutes.

There is also a self-propelled passenger rail car that is currently in use mostly to help the U.S. Forest Service, but which the railroad said could be used for commuter-style routes in the winter months.

The borough and Municipality of Anchorage have an agreement in place to form a regional transit authority to coordinate commuter rail with their respective bus services — MASCOT in the Valley and People Mover in Anchorage. The state Legislature still needs to weigh in and the railroad hopes it will grant its approval in the upcoming legislative session.

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