Midwest Hub

Olathe, KS

Stop on the proposed 17,000-mile maglev network. Next stop: Overland Park, KS (10.7 mi).

About Olathe

Olathe is a city in and the county seat of Johnson County, Kansas, United States. It is the fourth-most populous city in both the Kansas City metropolitan area and the state of Kansas, with a 2020 population of 141,290.

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	Mid-size terminal (parametric range $1-2B)	$1.5B
Land acquisition	Regional factor 1× on $200M base	$200M
Track: Olathe → Overland Park	10.7 mi × $500M/mi	$5.35B
Annual operations (share)	Staffing, power, maintenance	$30M/yr
Stop total (excl. annual ops)		$7.05B

Best terminal location (proposed)

The downtown Olathe district on the I-35 corridor. Downtown Olathe's county-seat core sits right on I-35 with the BNSF corridor running through town, and the surrounding Johnson County suburbs are the metro's growth engine. Garmin's headquarters and the county government complex nearby give the terminal a built-in employment catchment.

Before / after

Before and after aerial mock-up of the proposed maglev terminal at Olathe, KS

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

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

Lenexa, KS - Johnson County city on the I-35 corridor
Shawnee, KS - Johnson County suburb on the route
Merriam, KS - small city near the corridor

← All 287 stops