Pittsburgh Maglev, Dead or Alive? (Philadelphia, Harrisburg: homes, construction, school)

[pman]

Originally Posted by JoeLeaphorn

even though Cleveland to Chicago was. Now, with the current administration pledging $1 billion/year for high speed rail (NOT LRT, which is not capable of high speeds), we look like idiots for building a spur which cost more than $340 million dollars PER MILE.

and pitts-philly. seems like a big gap. why not all the way through?

[RockLobster]

Do add that much of the attraction for the local demo maglev would have come with the effort to manufacture much of the rail and passanger cars right here in the burgh had the mode of transit taken off nationally. Also the local geography and climate actually does act as a good thing for testing purposes versus the lack of challenge with flat point to point development.

[TheReason]

This won't happen anytime in the next 5 years.

[JoeLeaphorn]

Originally Posted by RockLobster

Do add that much of the attraction for the local demo maglev would have come with the effort to manufacture much of the rail and passanger cars right here in the burgh had the mode of transit taken off nationally. Also the local geography and climate actually does act as a good thing for testing purposes versus the lack of challenge with flat point to point development.

That was the theory. But I rode to DC on an Amtrak with someone who was, then, the head of the local consortium and he, himself, admitted that if a Maglev demo was ever built, Western Pa was considered a long shot.

That is the problem with this region. Our politicians spend so much time on pie in the sky projects like Maglev, Skybus and the Mon-Fayette expressway while eschewing the old technologies that made Pittsburgh what it was.

Massive investment in our rail infrastructure will require a domestic production capacity not seen in 40 years (unless we buy eveything from Europe and Asia). High speed heavy rail is proven, reliable, the safest form of travel known, and affordable. We should be focusing on what is doable.

[JoeLeaphorn]

Originally Posted by pman

and pitts-philly. seems like a big gap. why not all the way through?

The Pittsburgh-Philly route probably only makes sense if Pittsburgh is linked to high speed corridors through Cleveland (to Chicago, 761 miles from Philly) and Columbus (to St. Louis, 898 miles from Philly). Assuming that the tunnels could be bored at a reasonable cost, this would make Pittsburgh the logical hub for traffic going from the mid-West (and beyond) to the Eastern coast.

Some people have argued that high speed rail makes sense only for distances under 500 miles, but with oil prices set to rise again and considering a family size of four, I think that 5 hours from Chicago to Philly is not too shabby.

Pittsburgh to DC would be nice, but there are practical considerations involving the existing rights of way which follow the rather tortuous rivers through the mountains. This is part of the charm of the route but explains why it takes so long.

From Philly, the coast, New York and DC are all within easy reach.

[pman]

Originally Posted by JoeLeaphorn

The Pittsburgh-Philly route probably only makes sense if Pittsburgh is linked to high speed corridors through Cleveland (to Chicago, 761 miles from Philly) and Columbus (to St. Louis, 898 miles from Philly). Assuming that the tunnels could be bored at a reasonable cost, this would make Pittsburgh the logical hub for traffic going from the mid-West (and beyond) to the Eastern coast.
...
From Philly, the coast, New York and DC are all within easy reach.

Philly-Pitt is a high speed rail corridor for the feds, just no the pitt-CLE section. I thnk it's 344 miles by rail, though HSR might be 40 miles shorter, maybe more, depending on how many curves are straightened.

[JoeLeaphorn]

Originally Posted by pman

Philly-Pitt is a high speed rail corridor for the feds, just no the pitt-CLE section. I thnk it's 344 miles by rail, though HSR might be 40 miles shorter, maybe more, depending on how many curves are straightened.

Understood. But as I posted in another forum, the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech published a report a few years back which identified Pittsburgh as the Eastern-most metro area in what is called the Midwestern Megalopolis. Economically and culturally, Pittsburgh has more in common with Cleveland, Chicago, Youngstown, etc., than with Philly, New York, DC.

From an economic viewpoint, linking Pittsburgh to other cities in its megalopolis makes more sense than spanning the state to connect us to the Northeastern Megalopolis (which, not coincidentally, has high speed passenger rail).

However, if Pittsburgh-Philly is to be it, then it makes the most sense to extend the connection west to Columbus (and, possibly, Indianapolis and St. Louis), and to Cleveland and Chicago.

Pittsburgh to DC would be an impractical route to try HSR due to the terrain but Pgh-Philly makes some sense. Once there, there is HSR to New York (and, soon, Boston) and Baltimore and DC.

Pittsburgh could be the hub of HSR travel from the East Coast to the Midwest (actually, it once was).

[pman]

Originally Posted by JoeLeaphorn

From an economic viewpoint, linking Pittsburgh to other cities in its megalopolis makes more sense than spanning the state to connect us to the Northeastern Megalopolis (which, not coincidentally, has high speed passenger rail).

that's debatable, IMO. There are plenty of flights between Pittsburgh and Philly and NYC. AT least with Philly, there are a lot of burghers there. One might wonder whether HSR might be able to diversify pittsburgh's connections as well. I also think "megalopolis" as a term tends to breed the view that it's homogeneous, which it's not. Pittsburgh and Philly, of course, aren't so different in a lot of ways.

Originally Posted by JoeLeaphorn

Pittsburgh to DC would be an impractical route to try HSR due to the terrain but Pgh-Philly makes some sense. Once there, there is HSR to New York (and, soon, Boston) and Baltimore and DC.

Pittsburgh could be the hub of HSR travel from the East Coast to the Midwest (actually, it once was).

though the NEC is HSR by US Standards only, you are correct. once connected to Philly, it's connected to a larger network. While Pittsburgh has made little sense as a US Air hub, it does make a lot of sense as a rail hub to the places you mentioned.

[JoeLeaphorn]

Originally Posted by pman

I also think "megalopolis" as a term tends to breed the view that it's homogeneous, which it's not. Pittsburgh and Philly, of course, aren't so different in a lot of ways.

The term was coined by an ethnogeographer in the early 60s and used to describe population concentrations which could be defined by a common economy and culture. Pittsburgh is more closely linked to the Midwest in each of these both through common manufacturing (all, including Buffalo, are part of the rust belt), their culture, the fact that Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Toledo and Chicago and Detroit are also large intermodal ports, the dependency of these economies on coal, the strength of the unions and the commonality of the Mississippi River. Pittsburgh's economy rose and fell with that of these Midwestern towns, Philly's is much more coupled to the economies of New York, Washington, Baltimore, etc.

Pittsburgh has very little in common with Philly in most of the above respects.

More recent writing suggest that far from being a term from the past, megalopolises will be the logical way to group economies and, in fact, provides a strong argument for why state borders are less important than regional borders.

[aveojohn]

Originally Posted by Awesomo.2000

Maglev still has a small regional office that still competes with Baltimore. There is still a small group that designs the Maglev if funding for it actually would ever occur. I knew somebody who worked there that was pretty much designing a train for La La land on Tax Payers money.

The good thing, is 500 years from now when people actually would want to fund a train that can go 250 mph on average, there will be a good amount of design started for it.

I am not communist in anyway. However, you have to hand it to the communist, because when it comes to something like building a Maglev, they do it right away, and not sit on it for 150 years bickering and arguing.

The commies build stuff before they even have a use for it. There are a ton of white elephant projects in commie nations that sit idle because of this.