Want to take a fast multibillion-dollar ride to a dead end? Taxpayers soon will if the Federal Railroad Administration continues to railroad through plans for the nation's first commercial train operated with magnetic levitation. Seven authorities in six states shared a first-round allocation of $12.2 million in maglev planning awards. Last month in one of its last acts, the Clinton administration promised up to $55 million in second-round funds to both the Pittsburgh and Washington-Baltimore areas to refine plans for a maglev pilot project. Whichever area succeeds may receive another $950 million under the 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century.
But we ought to apply the brakes. The U.S. Dept. of Transportation will find, if it is skeptical enough, that neither Pittsburgh nor Washington-Baltimore can comply with a key tea-21 provision: Federal funds must not exceed two-thirds of the total capital cost. But if construction begins on either of the two proposals, the federal and local partners undoubtedly will have to decide whether to finance large cost overruns or derail the project.