I have seen small signs hinting at this. Here is what the GPT says about what a big deal this would be:

A rail link from Alaska to Russia, tied into the Siberian rail grid and then down into the continental United States, would be one of the largest trade corridors ever built. The numbers are easy to underestimate because the project would open an entirely new land bridge between the world’s two biggest continents.

Here is the simplest, most grounded way to understand the scale.

1. The potential trade volume

Economists have modeled versions of this corridor for twenty years. The consistent estimate is that, once fully integrated:

Annual trade could easily reach 200–500 billion dollars.

That is not because the rail moves all goods, but because a functioning land bridge directly connects:

The U.S. and Canada

Russia

China

Mongolia

Korea and Japan through feeder ports

The entire European continent through the Trans-Siberian and New Silk Road lines

A land bridge like this would make the United States part of a Eurasian overland trade network for the first time in history.

Bulk goods, manufactured goods, energy products, timber, agricultural shipments, container freight, and even passenger traffic could all run through it.

This corridor would also divert a meaningful share of Pacific shipping away from long sea routes.

2. Speed and cost advantages

Sea freight is cheap but slow. Air freight is fast but expensive. A rail line across the Bering Strait would sit in the middle:

Speed: Containers could move from Shanghai to Chicago in ~8–10 days.

Cost: About 25–40 percent cheaper than air freight and potentially faster than many sea routes.

Shippers use whatever combination of speed and cost gives the best return. Rail would take a significant slice of the high-value freight market.

3. How this compares to U.S.–Europe trade

Current trade figures:

U.S.–Europe trade today

Around 1.2 trillion dollars per year (goods and services combined).

If the Alaska–Russia rail corridor reached its expected scale:

Projected corridor impact

Roughly 200–500 billion in annual trade, depending on political stability.

So, compared directly:

It would not match the entire transatlantic economy.

But it would rival the value of America’s trade with major single regions, like:

U.S.–Mexico goods trade (~800 billion)

U.S.–China goods trade (~575 billion)

U.S.–Japan (~300 billion)

In other words, it becomes one of America’s top three or four trade relationships immediately once mature.

4. The key question: why would this be so big?

Because the rail line connects the United States to:

Europe

Russia

Central Asia

East Asia all through one physical network.

Every container that now moves from Asia to Europe by rail could also, in theory, move through North America. Every European shipment bound for the Pacific could also transit the American Midwest.

Nothing like this exists today.

5. The political bottleneck

Economics is not the obstacle here. Politics is.

Such a project would require:

Normal relations between the U.S. and Russia

A multi-decade security agreement

Massive infrastructure coordination

Permit rights through thousands of miles of wilderness

Tens of billions in capital

In peacetime, it would be plausible. In today’s geopolitics, it is nearly impossible.

6. Bottom line

Here is the straight answer without exaggeration:

A rail link from Alaska to Russia would create one of the largest trade corridors on earth, with potential commerce in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year. It would not match the entire U.S.–Europe trade volume, but it would become one of America's major trade arteries, rivaling U.S.–China or U.S.–Japan in scale.