(The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette posted the following article by Karen MacPherson on its website on May 8.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Gov. Ed Rendell said yesterday that the federal government should fund two magnetic levitation train projects, including one proposed for the Pittsburgh area.
Rendell, in Washington to testify on state transportation needs, told reporters that Congress “shouldn’t have to choose between competing projects.”
Instead, he insisted, lawmakers should fund both. “Let’s get it done,” he said. Earlier this year Rendell said he supports spending $500 million in state funds to match the $950 million in proposed federal funding for the maglev project proposed to connect Pittsburgh International Airport with Downtown.
Congress must approve the $950 million in federal funding for the maglev project, which would create the first U.S. system of trains that magnetically levitate on a guide-way at speeds of up to 240 mph.
The $3 billion, 45-mile Pittsburgh maglev project would connect Greensburg, Monroeville, Downtown and the airport. It was chosen two years ago by federal officials as one of two finalists for $950 million in federal maglev funding.
The other finalist is a $4.4 billion, 40-mile route between Baltimore and Washington. But Maryland officials have indicated that they are less interested in investing dwindling state dollars in the maglev project, leaving Pittsburgh as the top contender.
In the meantime, however, a third project, which would link Las Vegas to Anaheim in southern California, has gathered political steam. The project had seemed dead when it wasn’t named one of the two finalists, but backers refused to give up and quietly kept working to build support in Washington and back home.
Their efforts have borne fruit. Last week the Federal Railroad Administration earmarked $1.5 million in federal funds toward the cost of an environmental study for the $10 billion, 269-mile Las Vegas-California route. The railroad administration’s action essentially added the Las Vegas-California project onto the list of maglev finalists, supporters contend.
“The fact that we have a leading federal agency behind us will make things easier for us in obtaining federal funding for construction and puts us on a par with other maglev projects around the country,” Bruce Aguilera, chairman of the California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week.
In addition, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, recently reiterated his strong support for the Las Vegas-Anaheim maglev project. He argues it can be built faster and at a lower cost than the other projects.
Last month, Young traveled to California and talked with maglev backers there. According to a report in the Riverside (Calif.) Press Enterprise newspaper, Young told the group, “I’m a supporter of the California-Nevada line. I don’t see how you can solve congestion in this area without maglev and other freeways.”
But Young also has shown interest in the Pittsburgh project and hasn’t indicated whether he would support two maglev projects. Young’s support is critical because his committee will play a large role in deciding whether to spend $950 million in federal funds on a maglev project or projects over the next six years.
Maglev was just one of several transportation topics addressed by Rendell when he testified yesterday before the House highways and transit subcommittee. The subcommittee is compiling a six-year plan for funding the nation’s highway and transit needs.
Rendell told subcommittee members the highway spending bill, which could cost as much as $375 billion over six years, also is a “jobs bill. There is no greater economic stimulus than infrastructure spending,” he said.
Pennsylvania, which has the nation’s fifth-largest highway system, received a 40 percent increase ($1.3 billion) in federal highway funding over the past six years.
Despite that extra funding, 46 percent of Pennsylvania’s roads are in poor or mediocre condition and 42 percent of the state’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, Rendell said.
“We will never truly catch up until we look at a capital budget fund for infrastructure projects,” Rendell said.