In parts of Alaska, a gallon of milk costs over $10. A dozen eggs can cost $15. No American should live like this.
The Problem We've Ignored Too Long
Alaska Has Been Left Behind
Imagine paying twice sometimes three times what the rest of the country pays for the most basic essentials. A gallon of milk for $10. A loaf of bread for $8. Heating fuel that costs a family their entire paycheck. This is not some distant, foreign hardship. This is daily life for hundreds of thousands of American citizens living in Alaska.
The reason is simple and fixable. Alaska is cut off. No road, no rail, no affordable freight corridor connects it to the rest of the nation. Everything that arrives in Alaska food, medicine, building supplies, clothing, fuel must be flown or shipped across thousands of miles of ocean. Every mile of that journey is paid for by Alaskan families at the checkout counter.
The people of Alaska are tough. They are resourceful. They are proud. But they have been failed by their federal government and by a country that has simply looked away. The struggles of the people of Alaska have been ignored for far too long. That ends now.
No family in America should have to choose between heating their home and putting food on the table simply because of where they live.
The Solution
The New A2A Railway: Bellingham to Anchorage
I am proposing the construction of a new freight and passenger railway connecting the existing Amtrak Cascades terminal in Bellingham, Washington, north through British Columbia and the Yukon. Across the Alaska border and down to Anchorage . Linking to the existing Alaska Railroad network.
This is not a fantasy. The presidential permit for this corridor was already granted. The route has been surveyed. The economic case has been documented. What has been missing is the political will and the right starting point. I propose we begin construction at the Bellingham end, where infrastructure already exists. Building north while the Canadian and Alaskan segments are permitted and engineered in parallel.
Rail freight is three to four times cheaper per mile than trucking. The moment this line opens the cost of groceries, building supplies, fuel and consumer goods in Alaska drops dramatically. A family currently overpaying thousands of dollars a year on basic necessities gets that money back. That is a real, immediate, tangible benefit. Not a promise but a mathematical certainty.
Miles of new rail connecting Bellingham to Anchorage
Projected new jobs created during construction and operations
Alaska's grocery prices above the national average — that changes with rail
Estimated annual freight revenue once fully operational
The Benefits to Washington
Washington Doesn't Just Have Tech. We Feed the World.
Washington State's identity in the national conversation is often reduced to Amazon, Microsoft and Boeing. But Washington is one of the great agricultural states of America. Our apples are known worldwide. Our wheat feeds millions. Our potatoes, dairy, seafood, hops and wine are among the finest produced anywhere on this continent.
Right now shipping Washington agricultural products to Alaska is expensive, slow and complicated. Which means Alaskans pay more and Washington farmers earn less. A direct rail connection changes that equation entirely. Suddenly a farmer in the Skagit Valley has a direct affordable freight line to Anchorage. Washington food on Alaskan tables. Washington jobs sustained by Alaskan demand.
And as Alaska's cost of living drops, Alaskans' spending power rises. With more money freed from overpriced essentials, Alaskan families spend more on Washington goods, Washington products, Washington services. The economic benefit flows both directions, and it flows for generations.
Bellingham itself would be transformed. Currently a quiet ferry town. It would become the southern gateway of a continental freight corridor. A logistics hub generating thousands of permanent local jobs in transportation, warehousing and trade.
Washington's farmers deserve a direct line to market. The New A2A Railway gives them one at a fraction of today's cost.
The Bigger Picture
This Is Not Just About Washington and Alaska. This Is About America's Future.
Alaska's ports sit closer to the major economies of East Asia Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan . Than any port in the lower 48 states or British Columbia. That geography is an extraordinary strategic advantage that America has never fully leveraged. A functioning rail corridor from the continental United States through Alaska to deep water Pacific ports changes that.
Goods flowing between North America and Asia could cut two to four days off their shipping time. Alberta oil sands among the largest energy reserves in the world currently landlocked . Gain a viable route to Pacific export terminals. American grain, manufactured goods and agricultural products gain a faster cheaper path to the world's fastest growing consumer markets.
This is not a regional project. This is a national trade artery. And it is one that generates revenue from the first day it opens . From oil freight, consumer goods, agricultural shipments and passenger service . Rather than depending indefinitely on government subsidy.
Jobs, Technology, and the Future
Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Everything. We Need to Build What AI Cannot Replace.
Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the economy of Washington State right now. Many of the technology jobs that defined our region for a generation are being automated. The pace of those losses will accelerate not slow. That is not a reason for despair but it is a reason to plan. A reason to build.
Infrastructure cannot be offshored. Steel cannot be laid by a software algorithm. A railway through the wilderness of British Columbia and the Yukon requires engineers, welders, surveyors, heavy equipment operators, logistics managers, communications workers. Thousands of support roles that will exist for decades. Construction jobs. Maintenance jobs. Operations jobs. Jobs in the communities along the route that have never had them.
This is vital for the future of your children and your children's children. A better future does not just happen on its own. You have to build it. You have to lay down the foundation for it literally, in this case, tie by tie, rail by rail, mile by mile through some of the most spectacular and untouched wilderness on Earth.
The technology sector will reinvent itself, as it always has. But the families whose jobs are displaced in the transition deserve something real to build toward. The New A2A Railway is that something.
A Better Alternative
$205 Billion for Passenger Trains or a Railway That Actually Gets Built?
Just last week Representative Suzan DelBene of Washington co-introduced the American High Speed Rail Act of 2026. A proposal to spend $205 billion over five years on a national high speed passenger rail network. I respect the ambition. I believe in rail. But I believe in rail that gets built.
Consider what we already know. California has spent over $15 billion on high speed rail over 16 years. Not one mile of high speed track has been completed. The Trump administration recently recovered $4 billion in unspent federal funds from that project . Funds that are available right now to be redirected to something that will actually work.
Passenger only model with no freight revenue. Requires dense urban corridors to succeed. Has never worked at scale in America. California's version cost $15B+ and built nothing after 16 years.
Generates $5B+ per year in freight revenue from day one. Lowers food costs for Alaskans immediately. Opens an Asia trade corridor. Creates durable jobs. Can be seeded with the $4B already recovered from California.
I am not opposed to high speed rail where it makes sense . In dense corridors with proven ridership. But spending $205 billion on a system that has never succeeded in America. While 700,000 Alaskans pay $10 for a gallon of milk is the wrong priority for Washington State and the wrong priority for this country.
My proposal costs far less. Benefits far more people directly. Is far more likely to attract private freight investment. Addresses a genuine crisis of economic isolation that has been neglected for generations. That $4 billion recovered from California is the seed. Let's plant it in the right ground.
A Better Future Doesn't Build Itself.
The rail, the jobs, the lower prices, the trade corridor to Asia none of it happens without the will to build it. Join this campaign. Make this a reality.
Join the Campaign
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