Southeast/Atlantic Spine

Clearwater, FL

Stop on the proposed 17,000-mile maglev network. Next stop: St. Petersburg, FL (16.3 mi).

About Clearwater

Clearwater is a city in and the county seat of Pinellas County, Florida, United States, west of Tampa and north of St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies Tampa Bay.

Source: Wikipedia summary (full article). Population and facts as published there.

Cost breakdown (proposal-scale estimates — see math)

⚠️ All figures below are parametric estimates scaled from the proposal's own budget ($8.5T ÷ 17,000 mi ≈ $500M per mile), not engineering quotes. Methodology is shown so you can check the math.

Item	Basis	Estimate
Terminal construction	Large city — metro tier (range $2–4B)	$3B
Land acquisition	Regional factor 1.5× on $200M base	$300M
Track: Clearwater → St. Petersburg	16.3 mi × $500M/mi	$8.2B
Annual operations (share)	Staffing, power, maintenance	$60M/yr
Stop total (excl. annual ops)		$11.4B

Best terminal location (proposed)

The downtown Clearwater waterfront district. Downtown Clearwater's waterfront sits minutes from some of America's top-ranked beaches, with redevelopment momentum around the new Coachman Park. The terminal would capture beach tourism plus the county's large residential base, completing the Tampa Bay triangle.

Before / after

Before and after aerial mock-up of the proposed maglev terminal at Clearwater, FL

Aerial mock-up (illustrative, not an engineering rendering). Left: the proposed site today. Right: with the maglev terminal.

🛤️ Infill stops toward St. Petersburg: the proposal envisions more stops than cities — smaller stations between majors. Plausible infills on this leg:

Largo, FL — Pinellas County's third-largest city.
Pinellas Park, FL — mid-county commercial hub.
Seminole, FL — residential hub on Park Boulevard.

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