Add Boise, Idaho, and Anchorage, Alaska, to a list of locations expressing interest in launching commuter rail service.
The Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho (COMPASS) last week selected commuter rail as its preferred form of future mass transit, based on a study that has been in progress since January 2024. The planned service would use an existing Union Pacific route connecting Caldwell, Nampa, Meridian, and Boise, an area projected to have a population of 1.1 million by 2050, according to COMPASS.
Commuter rail was the considered the best choice by 80% of respondents to the study. “That gives me a great deal of confidence that selecting commuter rail was the right thing to do,” COMPASS Executive Director Craig Raborn told the Idaho Business Review. “However, it is preliminary; we are not locked in to that decision ― if something significant were to change, the COMPASS board certainly can, and will, consider that before final decisions are made.”
The COMPASS study, “Let’s Ride, Treasure Valley,” is known as a Planning and Environmental Linkages study, a preliminary step in the federal environmental impact process. The COMPASS website indicates funding “remains a significant obstacle.
“Idaho does not have a dedicated funding source for public transportation, which is needed to operate any sort of high-capacity transit system,” the organization says. “Without dedicated funding, work on any time of high-capacity service will remain in the planning stages.”
But the Let’s Ride report issued in July, notes the route for the rail plan has stronger ridership potential than the two Bus Rapid Transit routes that were also part of the latest stage of the study, would have the fastest travel times, would involve the fewest impacts on private property, and would have lower operating costs. However, construction costs are assumed to be higher, based on the expected needs for infrastructure improvements such as double tracking and new grade crossings, and it has less connection to pedestrian and bike routes, given that the existing rail line generally acts as a barrier to developing such routes.
The next step of the study, due this fall, will finalize a potential route and the Planning and Environmental Linkage study document.
Group calls for commuter rail pilot program in Alaska
Meanwhile, Alaska Public Radio reports that an advocacy group, the Alaska Commuter Rail Coalition, is calling for a pilot program that have two daily round trips between the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, or Mat-Su, and Anchorage, a route traveled by thousands of commuters daily. to address the thousands of people who make the 45-minute drive daily.
A commuter rail task force was formed by then-Gov. Bill Walker in 2017, and a member of that task force, Cynthia Wentworth, told APR that the project had support in 2018 but the legislature was unable to find the funding for it. The state-owned Alaska Railroad is willing to run the project, but funding remains an issue.
The actions in Boise and Anchorage come on the same week that the Nova Scotia provincial government took the first step toward studying light rail and commuter rail options for the Halifax region [see “Nova Scotia plans study …,” Trains.com, Aug. 22, 2025].
Guess Boise hasn’t been paying attention to the news??
Idaho? One hears that the population and the prosperity are increasing, which is good. What this proposal shows is that consultants can be paid to draw attractive maps. What does Union Pacific have to say about this plan?