PITTSBURGH — Planners have revised the route of a proposed high-speed magnetic levitation train through Westmoreland County to allay criticism from residents of Penn Township, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
The recommended alignment, completed about two weeks ago, will be shown at a public meeting today from 5 to 8 p.m. in the lecture hall at the Community College of Allegheny County’s Boyce campus in Monroeville.
“We’re trying to keep it as close to the Pennsylvania Turnpike as possible,” said Lou Rocchini, project manager for the Maguire Group, lead consultant for a draft environmental study required by the federal government. “We hope it will resolve most of the controversy.”
Private meetings have already been held with Westmoreland County commissioners and township commissioners from Penn, which the alignment now circumvents, “except maybe it could touch just a small piece,” Rocchini said.
Penn residents have posed about the only opposition to the 54-mile line.
High-speed maglev, whose cost estimates have escalated to $3.4 billion, would provide trains running on elevated guideway connecting Pittsburgh International Airport, Downtown Pittsburgh, Monroeville and the Greensburg area. It is a team project by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Port Authority of Allegheny County and Monroeville-based Maglev Inc., a private venture.
The trains would use electro-magnetic technology to glide at speeds exceeding 240 mph, enabling riders to travel the entire line in 30 minutes for $5 per segment. For example, fares from Greensburg would be $5 to Monroeville, $10 to Downtown and $15 to the airport.
The regional project is competing with a similar maglev proposal in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., corridor for a $950 million federal demonstration grant. The Federal Railroad Administration is supposed to pick the winning candidate next year.
Recommendations include two stations called Magports in the airport area — one at the airport and a “commuter station” south of Route 60 in Findlay. The Downtown Magport would be above Crosstown Boulevard (Interstate 579), between the Steel Plaza “T” station and Mellon Arena.
The Monroeville Magport would be on an old slag dump off Thompson Run Road near the Parkway East. The Greensburg station, which had once been proposed at Greengate Mall, would now be built near the interchange of Toll 66 (Greensburg Bypass) and Route 136 in Hempfield.
Additional formal hearings will be held, probably in December, after the high-speed maglev sponsors make a draft environmental impact statement available for public comment and review. The environmental studies got under way more than a year ago.
In addition to further analyzing alignments and Magport locations and then making recommendations, the study must produce reliable ridership, revenue and cost estimates.
Here is the recommended alignment:
Airport to Downtown: From Magports next to the airport’s landside building and the commuter station, the route crosses the Parkway West and follows a basically straight line east to the Chartiers Creek valley between Esplen and McKees Rocks. At the Ohio River, it veers right, then follows the Norfolk Southern Railway shelf to the Corliss Tunnel and West Carson Street to a point between the Panhandle Light Rail Transit and Liberty bridges, where maglev crosses the Monongahela River to the Downtown Magport.
Downtown to Monroeville: Follows the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway to 28th Street, then crosses the Strip District to the Allegheny Valley Railroad line to Verona. There, the alignment swings into the Plum Creek valley and follows the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Union Railroad to Thompson Run and the Monroeville Magport.
Monroeville to Greensburg: Follows the Parkway East to Monroeville and then follows the turnpike to 1 1/2 miles east of the Irwin interchange. The alignment heads cross-country to the Magport near the intersection of Route 136 and Toll 66 in Hempfield.
Each Magport site is to require up to 30 acres, mostly for parking. The Magports would be up to 600 feet long.