A MagLev for Pittsburgh?

Why is it that certain technologies inspire such religious passion in people? A wacky proposal to spend billions of dollars building a maglev rail line from Pittsburgh Airport through downtown Pittsburgh to one of its suburbs has enough traction that the Pennsylvania House Transportation Committee recently held hearings on it.

Someone might be excused for thinking that maglev would be the solution to traffic problems around the airports in Atlanta, Dallas, or other fast-growing regions. But Pittsburgh? Which, as Wendell Cox notes, is the only major U.S. urban area that is losing population? What is the point? Evidently, the point is to spend lots of money, which seems to be the name of the game for politicians — especially in Pennsylvania.

Continue reading