(The following article by Michael Yeomans was posted on the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review website on August 13.)
PITTSBURGH — The futuristic train that would whisk people from Pittsburgh International Airport, through Downtown and on to Greensburg would cross a new $40 million bridge over the Monongahela River between the Liberty Bridge and the Port Authority’s “T” bridge.
It then would follow Crosstown Boulevard, where a Downtown station would be constructed atop the highway, which divides Uptown from Downtown, according to officials of Maglev Inc., the Monroeville-based public-private consortium that for more than a decade has pushed to make magnetic levitation transportation a reality in the region.
Maglev officials appeared with U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter on Tuesday in the lobby mezzanine of the U.S. Steel Tower in an effort to keep momentum building for the project as it faces uncertain funding by Congress.
Specter, who pointed out he is third in line to the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee chairmanship, acknowledged the project would be costly at current estimates of more than $3 billion for the 47-mile project, but said the country can afford it.
“It’s expensive, but it’s worth it,” the Philadelphia Republican said.
When asked about his enthusiasm about the project in light of the struggles of the nation’s taxpayer-supported passenger rail system, Amtrak, which recently said it would have to cut some routes — including all three through Pittsburgh — in order to survive, Specter responded that every developed nation subsidizes rail travel.
This is a contradiction to the Federal Railroad Administration guidelines for the maglev demonstration project, which indicates that it must be able to pay its operating costs out of operating revenue.
To date, the Western Pennsylvania project has received $18 million from the federal government, significantly more than any of the other competing proposals.
In 2001, the Federal Railroad Administration reduced the competition for federal funding from seven regions to two — Western Pennsylvania and a project in Maryland that would connect Washington, D.C., with Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
Both rely on technology developed by a public-private German consortium, Transrapid International Gmbh, which operates a maglev test track in Germany and recently completed the world’s first commercially operational line in Shanghai, China.
Maryland officials have signalled in recent months that their consortium no longer is actively pursuing maglev funding from Congress. The 1998 surface transportation bill set aside $950 million for a maglev demonstration project in the U.S., but Congress has yet to appropriate the money.
Specter said he is interested in building a wider coalition in Congress to unlock federal money earmarked for maglev. This could include reinstating a proposed Las Vegas-to-California maglev route to garner more Congressional support.
Specter said Gov. Ed Rendell is firm on the state’s commitment of nearly $500 million for the project.
Maglev Vice President Frank Clark said the environmental impact study for the project would be completed by year’s end, and that final route selection would occur early next year.
Clark said Maglev officials are preparing for a fall trip to Shanghai to ride the 19-mile maglev train linking Shanghai with Pudong International Airport. The project, similar to the first link in the Pittsburgh project connecting Downtown with the airport, was completed in just 22 months.
Clark said that the Chinese experience proves a maglev project can be done on time and within budget, and perform correctly. However, he acknowledged the Shanghai line — a relatively smooth path through swampland — didn’t face the topographic or environmental challenges posed by Pittsburgh’s geography.
“What China shows is that you can have a system up and running in two years, if you want to,” Clark said.