Northeast Corridor

Philadelphia, PA

Stop on the proposed 17,000-mile maglev network. Next stop: Allentown, PA (48.8 mi).

About Philadelphia

Philadelphia, colloquially referred to as Philly, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the sixth-most populous city in the United States. Its population was 1.60 million at the 2020 census and estimated at 1.57 million in 2025.

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	Major hub terminal — top-10 US metro ($4–8B range)	$6B
Land acquisition	Regional factor 1.5× on $200M base	$300M
Track: Philadelphia → Allentown	48.8 mi × $500M/mi	$24.4B
Annual operations (share)	Staffing, power, maintenance	$120M/yr
Stop total (excl. annual ops)		$30.7B

Best terminal location (proposed)

the existing Amtrak 30th Street Station district. The Northeast Corridor's second-busiest station already joins Amtrak, SEPTA, NJ Transit and the Market-Frankford subway. The Schuylkill Yards air-rights project proves major expansion room overhead. It captures the entire Delaware Valley in one catchment.

Before / after

Before and after aerial mock-up of the proposed maglev terminal at Philadelphia, PA

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

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

Quakertown — Bucks County borough on the PA-309 corridor.
Coopersburg — Lehigh County borough midway on the leg.
Emmaus — borough at the Allentown approach.

← All 287 stops