If there's ever going to be regular commuter rail service between the Matanuska Valley and Anchorage, trains are going to have to cover the distance in less time. Key to that is making tight curves straighter, but the expense of doing that is huge, Alaska Railroad officials tell the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman.

"Ten years ago it took 90 minutes to get a train from Anchorage to Wasilla," said Tom Brooks, the railroad's chief engineer.

He said that time has been steadily reduced to 60 minutes and the realignment at Fairview Loop will shave off more time.

"That actually would take another five minutes off," he said.

Brooks said the curves were put in back in 1919 or so when the track was first laid down. There's a pretty significant gully there and trains don't do well on inclines, so the track followed the grade around the gully. Brooks said it'll take a pretty significant embankment, dozens of feet tall, to fix that problem - hence the project's expense.