The Pennsylvania Project
The Pennsylvania Project is being developed for the
Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) program under SAFETEA-LU by MAGLEV,
Inc. and the Port Authority of Allegheny County. The project was one of two
selected in a competition to build the first high-speed maglev
transportation system in the United States under the TEA-21 legislation. It is a 54 mile (87
km) alignment linking Pittsburgh International Airport to downtown
Pittsburgh, and to the eastern suburbs of Monroeville and Greensburg. The
project will provide an excellent evaluation of the planning, designing,
building and operation of the high-speed maglev technology in the
United States, as well as being the best location from which to
deploy maglev across the nation.
The maglev technology of choice is the German Transrapid System, developed by Transrapid International, which is in limited revenue service at the Transrapid Emsland Test Facility and in full revenue service in Shanghai, China. Transrapid is proven technology and has been under research and development since 1969. The test track has been in operation in Germany since the mid-1980's and reaches speeds in excess of 250 mph (400 km/h). A system in Shanghai, China has safely carried more than seven million passengers at speeds in excess of 270mph (430km/h) with an overall system availability of 99.8 percent. To view pictures of the Transrapid system visit the Transrapid Photo Gallery.
The Pennsylvania Project, as supported by MAGLEV, Inc., has two objectives: one is to install the first high-speed maglev, the other is to establish the precision fabrication technology required to implement the Transrapid technology in the USA. Please visit the Pennsylvania Project Website for more information.