Pittsburgh, PA
Stop on the proposed 17,000-mile maglev network. Next stop: Erie, PA (116.8 mi).
About Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. Located in southwestern Pennsylvania where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio River, it had a population of 302,971 at the 2020 census, making it the second-most populous city in Pennsylvania after Philadelphia. The Pittsburgh metropolitan area has over 2.43 million people, making it the largest in the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the 28th-largest in the U.S.
Source: Wikipedia summary (full article). Population and facts as published there.
Cost breakdown (proposal-scale estimates — see math)
| Item | Basis | Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal construction | Large-city terminal (parametric range $2–4B) | $3B |
| Land acquisition | Regional factor 1.5× on $200M base | $300M |
| Track: Pittsburgh → Erie | 116.8 mi × $500M/mi | $58.4B |
| Annual operations (share) | Staffing, power, maintenance | $60M/yr |
| Stop total (excl. annual ops) | $61.7B |
Best terminal location (proposed)
The Strip District / 16th Street rail corridor. The Strip's riverfront industrial blocks sit on active rail alignments with direct approaches to downtown, and the district is already Pittsburgh's densest redevelopment zone. A terminal here can reuse freight corridors for guideway approaches while feeding the Strip's markets, offices, and the convention center.
Before / after
Aerial mock-up (illustrative, not an engineering rendering). Left: the proposed site today. Right: with the maglev terminal.
- Cranberry Township, PA — booming I-79 suburb north of the city.
- Grove City, PA — college town (Grove City College) on the corridor.
- Meadville, PA — Crawford County seat and former rail hub.