Maglev is back in action...again. (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh: transfer, buy, construction)

[AaronPGH]

So this has to be about the 50th time this project has come back to life. This is a serious chunk of change though! Maybe it's for real this time...

Pittsburgh region gets $28 million to plan maglev project
Thursday, September 10, 2009
By James O'Toole, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Federal Railroad Administration has awarded a $28 million grant for preliminary work on the long-planned Pennsylvania High-Speed Maglev project.

The grant was announced this afternoon by Sens. Arlen Specer and Bob Casey, along with Rep. Mike Doyle. The project, billed as the first phase of a cross-state high speed network, would start at the Pittsburgh International Airport and travel to Downtown Pitsburgh, then to Monroeville and on to Greensburg. The grant is the largest federal commitment to the project so far, but construction would still be well into the future. The funds to be released by the FRA are for planning and other preliminary work.

"This $28 million award is the most significant development in the 29 years we've been working on Maglev," Mr. Specter said in the release announcing the project.

"The vision is to have a 250 mile-an-hour train traveling from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia with intermediate stops. Such a train would be a tremendous economic boon with thousands of new jobs in the steel and construction industry and would meet our increasing demand for transportation, reduce highway congestion, improve air quality and reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

"This project has the chance to help establish a world-class transportation system in Pennsylvania," Mr Casey said. "This initiative has the potential to spur job creation while helping to improve our environment and bolster the Commonwealth's long-term economic competitiveness."

"I've been working to build a mag-lev system in Pennsylvania throughout my service in Congress," said Congressman Mike Doyle. "I believe it could be a major new engine for job creation and economic growth in our region. It's great to see all our hard work paying off."

Maglev Inc. of McKeesport, the developer, has spent more than $27 million in federal and state funds since the mid-1990s. The group is close to finishing an environmental impact study on the project.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Politics Editor James O'Toole can be reached at jotoole@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1562.
First published on September 10, 2009 at 5:38 pm

Read more: Pittsburgh region gets $28 million to plan maglev project

[BrianTH]

My jaw just hit the floor. I'm a supporter of much more spending for high speed land transportation, but this particular project only makes sense if it is a pilot program for a huge future investment in a much bigger maglev network, and I'm not sure the technology warrants such a future investment even in a world where those dollars are available for high speed land transportation.

But $28 million is real money at the study stage.

[AaronPGH]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

My jaw just hit the floor. I'm a supporter of much more spending for high speed land transportation, but this particular project only makes sense if it is a pilot program for a huge future investment in a much bigger maglev network, and I'm not sure the technology warrants such a future investment even in a world where those dollars are available for high speed land transportation.

But $28 million is real money at the study stage.

Agreed. The project is completely worthless if it doesn't extend all the way to Philly. In fact, I'm not sure the airport spur is worth it even if it does. I really think the airport line should be light rail so that #1 - communities along the way can benefit (not going to happen with Maglev), and #2 - it will flow seamlessly into the rest of the system.

I mean, the whole justification of the north shore connector was to eventually go to the airport. Now what the **** are they supposed to do with that thing?

[BrianTH]

Yeah, the whole thing with maglev is that it only makes sense (if it makes sense at all) as intercity transport. Using it as an airport shuttle in a city the size of Pittsburgh is just silly--in fact I don't even buy it in Shanghai. But the Shanghai project was designed to prove the viability of the technology for intercity use, which is the theory here too I guess.

[dugdogmaster]

Generally speaking, as I asked on SSP, is this thing really gaining some traction now, maybe in accordance with President Obama's plan?

[neurodistortion]

The fact that the North Shore Connector is being built raises another question... does anyone think it would it be more wise to build the maglev station on the North Shore rather than in the middle of Downtown?

[ctoocheck]

Maglev is really cool, of course, but so expensive! And it hardly goes any faster (currently) than high-speed rail like France's TGV. Plus it is conceivably a proprietary system and the track can't support different forms of vehicles like conventional rail. So I'm kinda torn.
This could be really great for Pgh unless, of course, it is a flop. Indeed, if it was not extended anywhere else if seems it would be.
Also there's the question of whether Pgh really is big enough to support any acutal service besides testing ... but we can be optimistic and say things really are going to progess dramatically in Pgh (and indeed in the whole US with rail travel and all) right???

So I don't know what to think about this.... definately cool, and it has potential, but is it really practical and worth the cost compared to traditional rail?

Cunundrum!

[BrianTH]

It wouldn't make much sense to require people to make a transfer on the North Shore to get to Downtown, particularly since the idea is also to expand this out to Monroeville and Greensburg for commuters, and eventually to other cities like Philly and Chicago for intercity travel. In fact they actually looked at alignments that would stop on the North Shore or Station Square, but concluded a Downtown stop made the most sense.

By the way, abandoning the idea of a light rail extension from the North Shore to the airport is a good idea, maglev or no: if you had the kind of money it would take for such a project, it would make much more sense just to bring the West Busway all the way into Downtown, thereby upgrading the express bus option.

[JoeLeaphorn]

Originally Posted by ctoocheck

So I don't know what to think about this.... definately cool, and it has potential, but is it really practical and worth the cost compared to traditional rail?

No. This is a ridiculous waste of money (although a pittance compared to the $450 million spent on the North Shore Connector). You need new rights of way, you can't use existing equipment, no grade crossings, etc.

As for a demonstration, there already is one, in Shanghai. And after building it, the Chinese (who have a lot more money to spend on infrastructure than we do), decided to use conventional HSR to connect Bejing to Shanghai, which says alot.

[BrianTH]

Due to the backwards compatibility issue, the only way maglev even conceivably makes sense to me over wheeled trains is if you are prepared to really commit to it, on the scale of investment of the Eisenhower interstate highway system. And even then I'm not sure.

That said, I'm fairly sure that this proposed maglev project would be a boon to the Pittsburgh region once it was built. It might never recoup its capital costs, but it should be able to maintain a profit over operations, and it would likely help the city grow its tourist and convention trade. To be clear, if the region had to pay for building the thing by itself, it would be a terrible idea. But if the state and particularly the feds are willing to put up the capital costs, then that is a deal I would find hard to refuse.