PITTSBURGH — Penn Township’s manager knows firsthand the concern residents are feeling over a route proposed for a maglev train in that municipality, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.
On Wednesday and Thursday morning, Manager Bruce Light fielded at least 20 telephone calls from citizens who all had the same question: Where could they get a more detailed map of the proposed alignment for the high-speed train?
“They want to know if their homes are involved,” Light said.
Unable, so far, to get graphic maps from officials involved in the maglev project, the township is considering another option.
“We’re trying to (create) our own map because we’ve been inundated with people (calling),” Light said.
Bob Grove, spokesman for the Port Authority of Allegheny County, which is involved in the maglev project, said maps will be sent soon to municipal government buildings in communities that may be affected by the two alignments currently being reviewed in Westmoreland County.
Grove wasn’t sure how detailed these layouts would be, but said more detailed blueprints are being considered.
“We’re working on maps on the level of streets and neighborhoods,” he said.
The Penn Township route being considered would generally run through Claridge and Campbell Farm Estates, a residential development, and go near the Grandview Fire Hall and Shramm’s Farms and Orchard.
According to an aerial map reviewed earlier this month, the other proposed route in Westmoreland County would slice through Murrysville’s business district, running parallel to routes 22 and old 66 before connecting with a “magport” proposed at the Greengate Mall.
The 47-mile maglev system would connect Pittsburgh and its international airport with Monroeville and Greensburg.
Because of concerns about the two routes, the Westmoreland County commissioners plan to meet March 1 to discuss the alignments.
Commissioner Chairman Tom Balya said that session probably would be held behind closed doors and involve his board, Mglev officials, and township and borough elected leaders whose communities may be touched by the possible alignments.
“We’re going to meet and talk about it and look at … alternatives,” Balya said.
County Commissioner P. Scott Conner said the meeting next month is a good idea because action is needed “to define this very quickly.” Conner said lives are being affected.
“We’re going to be looking for the least intrusive way for this to come through Westmoreland County,” Conner added.
Commissioner Tom Ceraso couldn’t be reached for comment yesterday.
By June, the authority and others hope to complete an Environmental Impact Study that will reduce the two possible routes through the county down to one, Grove said. The commissioners then will be asked to endorse or rejected the route selected.
“Everyone’s telling me that duty’s going to fall to the Westmoreland County commissioners – to approve or endorse (or reject). That’s different than selecting the routes,” Grove said.
Conner described the commissioners as offering “an opinion.”
The port authority’s board of directors also will be considering a similar endorsement for the maglev segments in Allegheny County.
The Westmoreland County commissioners’ views would eventually be forwarded, along with the feelings of others, to the Federal Railroad Administration, which is to decide in spring 2003 whether western Pennsylvania or the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., area will be the site of the first maglev system in the United States and receive $950 million in up-front money.
The Allegheny County authority and others involved in maglev are hoping to gain uniform support to get the railroad administration’s support.
“If you go forward and give the Federal Railroad Administration a project that not everyone is in favor of, you’re not putting the project in its best light,” Grove said.
Maglev’s overall price tag is estimated at $2.8 billion.
Most of the comments about the proposed Westmoreland County routes have come from Penn Township elected leaders and citizens.
Murrysville Mayor Joyce Somers said residents are getting conflicting information about the alignment proposed in and near that community. She said efforts to get detailed, accurate maps of the proposed routes have failed, too.
“What people are getting is misinformation right and left,” Somers said.
To try to solve problems, Maglev officials have agreed to give an overview of the project at a meeting at 7 p.m. March 6 in Murrysville council chambers. It will preceded council’s regular meeting at 7:30 p.m.
No questions from the public will be allowed at the 7 p.m. session, Somers said, at Maglev’s request. But forms to write questions for later answers from Maglev are anticipated to be on hand.
Unlike Penn Township, Murrysville officials have had only a few calls about the proposed route in their community, Somers said.
“After that (March 6 meeting), I’m sure our phones are going to ring off the hook,” she said.