The notion of a new turnpike through the West End of Pittsburgh may seem preposterous, and it is. But so were the so-called "Airport Busway" and "Skybus" projects, the first having wasted its money on less than half the project and the latter being killed by my mentor in transit, PA Deputy Secretary of Transportation Ed Tennyson who was in charge of transit for the state. Yet both moved forward even though they made no sense, because they stood to make dollars for the speculators involved.
If the public becomes complacent simply because they haven't heard about a project for many years, it is a huge risk. Speculators rely upon the general public being unaware of their back room activity advancing their projects. By the time the public finally does become aware, things are usually too far along to be stopped.
Will history repeat itself?
While nothing is certain until it happens, we can look at history to get a glimpse of what we can expect. The north expressway through East Street was on the books for a half century or more. The Mon-Fayette took around 60 years from first efforts until its near completion now. The West End turnpike proposal has not been around that long.
Occasionally, a project can get fast-tricked. The "Airport Busway," since renamed more appropriately as the West Busway was nowhere on the Port Authority's radar until real estate speculator, Jack Buncher, got his friend Tom Foerster, Chairman of the Allegheny County Commissioners, to fast-track the project. All of a sudden it became the Port Authority's most urgent project. Why? Because Buncher wanted to get $ 4million for a left over rail right-of-way that ran from Corliss to Carnegie. As the project proceeded, the Port Authority took it through eminent domain for $2 million. Buncher sued, and they settled out of court for $7 million.
The same federal funding that was wasted on the busway could have built rapid rail from Steel Plaza into the Airside terminal at the airport. But there were two flies in the soup. First was not wanting to have questions asked about why that didn't happen in the first place; it would almost certainly have opened a whole can of worms and let to inconvenient disclosures. Second, there was and remains MagLev, a magnetic levitation system that was proposed to go from Greensburg to Pittsburgh and then up the middle of a new turnpike through the West End of Pittsburgh out to meet up with the Airport Expressway.
MagLev
Mellon family money is allegedly behind the MagLev project, expecting an eventual return of billions of dollars from the federal government. In the years since, the experimental project has sat still and even went through bankruptcy a while back. However, it has not been dissolved or taken off the books. It is still on the Allegheny Conference Agenda awaiting the right circumstances to rapidly reactivate again.
At this point what could breathe new life back into MagLev? What might it take for the federal government to pony up the money to get it under way? Well, we now have a US President who wields power without regard to the official policies and normal processes of the federal government. He bills himself as a transactional president, wanting something for himself in return for granting something in return.
On October 25, 2025 the New York Times published that the recent anonymous donor of $130 million to pay for military salaries at Trump's request is Timothy Mellon, a recluse billionaire heir to the Mellon fortune who is heavily vested in the transportation sector. As a long time backer of Trump, that donation is very likely only a small down payment for a much larger return in the way of federal financing for MagLev.
That's not all that is in the cards. Trump, who is enamored with high tech enterprises, has made a point of the federal government obtaining partial ownership of commercial efforts which receive federal funding. The backers of MagLev have nothing to lose by giving a share of their business in return for massive funding. A deal involving such an arrangement could justify the huge allocation of federal funds needed amidst tight budget considerations. It would likely be worked out well before any notice is released.
Other indications of a West End turnpike looming
There are other indications that fit the picture of a MagLev turnpike through the West End moving forward. The continuing failure to maintain Sheraden Park, the largest traditional park in District 2, would make its loss be less of a public outrage as would the loss of homes through struggling neighborhoods. It could be by design or just a hidden benefit for the MagLev backers.
Then there is the recent renaming of the Allegheny County Port Authority ("PAT") to its current moniker of Pittsburgh Regional Transit. This follow on of earlier announcements of wanting to extend the agency to include the outer counties fits with Allegheny Conference's expansive efforts of control. It also fits with the need to have the entire route of the MagLev project within the coverage of the agency through which it would be operated. By being the regional transit, in name if not in fact, it will be easier to fool the US Congress into approving the federal funding for the experimental project.
While not absolutely definitive, they add to the circumstantial evidence that fits with preparations to move the project forward in relatively short order.
Fast-tracking MagLev
What would fast-tracking MagLev entail and on what timeline? Engineering would need to be done, but as with the demolition of the White House East Wing, Trump has a penchant for not waiting on such a little thing as final plans. Even before engineering and testing of the technology, as with the White House, a place for the project needs to be prepared. That would put acquisition of the right-of-way and clearing out the people living there near the front of the list. With the construction of I-279, clearing out the East Street Valley began as early as the 1960's, well before the final plans of exactly where and how the project would proceed, and way ahead of the interstate eventually opening shortly before 1990.
So, we should expect the fast-tracking MagLev to include preparations for building a turnpike through the west neighborhoods of District 2 near the top of a to-do list. Since the Allegheny Conference sets the public policy, we may observe the deterioration of Sheraden Park and its surrounding neighborhoods as setting the stage for their demise much the way the conditions of the East Street Valley and lower Hill District each made them ripe for their respective Conference backed projects. Prior to the current administration, equity considerations of the environmental approvals process might slow building through the West End neighborhoods, but Trump has removed those protections by decree. neighborhood
Nobody knows exactly what Trump will do. Neither does anyone know for certain what the rest of City Council will do. However, since it wouldn't affect their districts, they could be expected to match the earlier Council approvals for the Airport Busway project into Downtown. That occurred despite my advance disclosure of its problems in a Post-Gazette op-ed article, "The Busway to Nowhere". We do know that for MagLev to move forward, a turnpike through the west end of Pittsburgh out to the Airport Expressway would first need to be finished with a wide center median for its unique track. Even if MagLev should prove to be unworkable in the end, we will still be left with a new turnpike matching the Airport Expressway with its wide median ready and waiting.
What does the future hold?
Nobody can predict the future with certainty, but we can read the tea leaves and get a good idea of what to expect.
Magnetic levitation does have some promise as a new technology, but not the version used for the MagLev project. First of all, it would be 30 feet in the air on stilts and require that its track be heated all winter long because there must not be any chance of precipitation, condensation, or frost building up on its track. More importantly, though, it can not take advantage of the high speeds possible utilizing evacuated tubes where the virtually nonexistent air resistance would enable ultra high speeds that could be faster than jet aircraft.
None of that matters, however, because even if it doesn't make sense, the purpose of the Conference Agenda is making dollars for the players who pay the elected officials to advance their speculative projects. That's why it is critically important to have City Council members who know the score and are willing to stand up for the betterment of the City and its residents.
As a current candidate for the District 2 City Council seat, I offer a demonstrated history of being willing to take a case to protect the District to as high of a court as possible. I fought the waste on the Airport/West Busway as high as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and as high a the US Court of Appeals. At the time I organized local residents along the Busway route and we sued as "private attorneys general," being told at US District Court that we were too early and at the Appeals Court that we were too late. Having an elected representative lead a legal action in defense of the District would add weight to a suit and give better protection to the district. But that can happen only if I receive your vote on Tuesday, November 4, 2025.