Allentown, PA
Stop on the proposed 17,000-mile maglev network. Next stop: Philadelphia, PA (48.8 mi).
About Allentown
Allentown is a city in eastern Pennsylvania, United States. The county seat of Lehigh County, it is the third-most populous city in Pennsylvania, with a population of 125,845 as of the 2020 census. It is also the most populous city in the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th-most populous metropolitan area in the nation as of 2020.
Source: Wikipedia summary (full article). Population and facts as published there.
Cost breakdown (proposal-scale estimates — see math)
| Item | Basis | Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal construction | Mid-size terminal — 200K–1M catchment ($1–2B range) | $1.5B |
| Land acquisition | Regional factor 1.5× on $200M base | $300M |
| Track: Allentown → Philadelphia | 48.8 mi × $500M/mi | $24.4B |
| Annual operations (share) | Staffing, power, maintenance | $30M/yr |
| Stop total (excl. annual ops) | $26.2B |
Best terminal location (proposed)
the downtown Allentown / former rail yards district. The Lehigh Valley's core city has former rail yards and downtown parcels ready for a terminal. I-476 and PA-309 give the whole valley — Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton — a straight shot. It captures the warehouse and logistics workforce plus New York exurb commuters.
Before / after
Aerial mock-up (illustrative, not an engineering rendering). Left: the proposed site today. Right: with the maglev terminal.
- Emmaus — borough south of Allentown on the corridor.
- Coopersburg — borough midway on the PA-309 alignment.
- Quakertown — Bucks County borough at the Philadelphia approach.