PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Penn Township commissioners urged residents Monday to call elected officials and voice their opposition to a high-speed train coming through the municipality, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.
Board Chairman Charles Horvat asked citizens to contact the Westmoreland County commissioners and state and federal lawmakers to denounce any maglev route through the township.
“Maglev says they want public involvement in the process of finalizing the alignment, so we will need your support and action to stop these routes through Penn Township,” he read from a prepared statement to about 70 people at the board’s regular meeting last night.
“We cannot do it alone.”
Earlier this month, maglev officials decided to further study two routes through Westmoreland County as they attempt to build the train on an elevated track to connect Pittsburgh and its international airport with Monroeville and Greensburg.
One of the paths tabbed for further study basically would run through the center of Penn Township, and the other would take a path close to routes 22 and 66.
Both would run near two other alignments proposed last year. The first considered path through Penn Township’s middle also drew sharp criticism from the township’s commissioners and residents.
Based on an aerial map put on display this month by maglev developers, the latest considered route through the township would run through Claridge, near or through the residential developments of Campbell Farm Estates and Oak Farm Estates, near Shramm’s Farms and Orchards.
“Everybody, please get involved. … This is a degradation of the whole township. It really is,” Commissioner Paul Wersing said.
Horvat said the board’s opposition is unanimous.
“The majority of the board accepts the concept of new technology for high-speed rail transport such as maglev,” he read from the statement. “However, we unanimously oppose any alignment that comes through Penn Township.”
Although the statement called the route 22/66 alignment “viable,” the letter adds, “We will insist and demand that the Harrisburg/Pittsburgh railroad corridor from Greengate (Mall) to Pitcairn is the only route we will consider and/or support.”
The routes are part of an Environmental Impact Study, which is to be completed by the end of this year for submission to the Federal Railroad Administration for possible project awarding.
Western Pennsylvania is competing with the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., area to have the first maglev system in the United States and for the $950 million in up-front money. The rail administration is expected to decide which project will get the funds in early 2003.
If western Pennsylvania is selected for the $2.8 billion project, the airport/downtown Pittsburgh portion of the system is slated to be built first.
The township commissioners insisted last night that the Westmoreland County commissioners will have a say in the county route selected, making a call to each commissioner imperative.
Horvat said his board hopes to meet soon with the county commissioners and maglev. A public meeting involving maglev and others also is being planned.
During the public comment period of the regular meeting, nine people spoke about maglev.
Tom Transue, president of the citizens group the Conservation Association of the Penn Township Area, or CAPA, said he agreed that contacting lawmakers was key to what he called “managing” of the maglev issue. Last year, CAPA used county and state courts to defeat an attempt by Allegheny Energy Inc. to build a power plant near Claridge.
“This is going to be a different kind of battle,” Transue said, referring to court challenges. “I think it’s a case of (needing) serious lobbying. And from what I’ve heard, many of our state and federal lawmakers are in favor of (maglev).”
Solicitor Les Mlakar agreed that if maglev is to be blocked from running through the township, politicians – not the courts – would be the answer.
“There doesn’t appear to be a great human cry to the (county) commissioners themselves,” Mlakar said, adding that such a cry is needed.
Ray Grant told the township commissioners that he was disappointed maglev officials didn’t offer citizens more information, especially early in the process.
“I think what they did before was basically P.R., because they didn’t have any answers to my questions,” he said.
Other comments from citizens centered on security concerns, mine subsidence issues, noise, property devaluation and revenue loss.