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O'Connor back from trip, high on maglev
Wednesday, July 11, 2001 By Timothy McNulty, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
After touring the factory of a proposed low-speed maglev subcontractor in San Diego last week, Pittsburgh City Councilman Bob O'Connor said he is poised to start another push for the transportation technology soon.
The tour also kept O'Connor away from a closely-watched council vote on historic status for a North Side church, which he would have voted against, the council president said yesterday.
The proposal for a $147 million magnetic levitation train, linking a Hill District parking garage with Downtown, has long been stalled. Developers have not secured needed approvals from such agencies as the Sports & Exhibition Authority and the city Planning Commission, and Mayor Tom Murphy and Hill District Councilman Sala Udin have long been wary of the project.
But O'Connor said the technology, which could provide a mass-transit link from Downtown to Oakland and the North Shore, should at least be tested, perhaps on a test track by the Pittsburgh Technology Center in South Oakland.
"Transportation is maybe the key issue if you look around the country," O'Connor told reporters after yesterday's council session. Pittsburgh "should be looking 10 years down the road."
Early last week, O'Connor and state Sen. Jack Wagner, D-Beechview, visited the San Diego facilities of General Atomics, a high-tech company that has spent years developing superconducting magnets and is among the companies pushing Pittsburgh to build the world's first low-speed maglev line.
Through the proposal, a track would be built 30 feet above the ground, upon which small passenger vehicles would be levitated about 2 inches above the track using super-cooled electromagnetic technology. The vehicles would be propelled up to 50 miles an hour, linking a 5,000-car garage near Mellon Arena with the Port Authority's Steel Plaza light rail station Downtown.
The maglev ride would be free but parking would cost $11. General Atomics would be the subcontractor providing the sophisticated equipment for the project.
Officials at the Western Pennsylvania Maglev Development Corp. say the Downtown track cannot be built until 2007 at the earliest. In the meantime, they are planning to build a test track, perhaps by 2004. Developers also have to contend with proposals for a new hockey arena, which could affect their garage plans.
O'Connor says he is on board with the developer's plans, saying he wants to bring General Atomics to Pittsburgh for a public meeting on the project and reinvigorate lobbying for the proposal through opinion pieces in local newspapers.
The proposal is different from high-speed maglev, which is being pushed by Monroeville-based Maglev Inc. It plans to use levitation trains capable of reaching 300 mph in a proposed 47-mile demonstration project linking Pittsburgh International Airport, Downtown, Monroeville and Greensburg.
While traveling back from California, O'Connor missed a vote on historic status for St. Nicholas Church on the North Side, which council approved 6-2. Yesterday, he said he would have voted against the designation because he believes it interferes with the business of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Murphy has not taken action on the measure. If he vetoes it, council will need all six of those votes to override him.
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