But it’s unlikely the would-be project would receive any money from President Barack Obama’s proposed economic stimulus package, Times Online announced. At least, the project wasn’t included in a 188-page stimulus funding “wish list” released Thursday by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, a planning organization for a 10-county area that includes Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties. Onorato chairs the commission’s board.

“It’s not on the SPC list, but it’s on my list of priorities for Allegheny County. There are several lists,” Onorato said at a Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce breakfast in Moon Township.

According to Times Online, another light-rail plan did make it onto the commission’s list, though. An estimated $5.1 billion project would connect downtown Pittsburgh and the city’s Oakland neighborhood via an elevated rail system, and it would also include a “circulator system” that would run in and around Oakland.

The commission is seeking $2.5 billion in federal stimulus money for that project.

A spokesman for Onorato said the airport-to-downtown rail project wasn’t included on the commission’s list because it’s not as far along, from a planning perspective, as the downtown-to-Oakland project.

“It’s not going to be ready to go in six months to a year. The downtown-to-Oakland project could be,” said spokesman Kevin Evanto, noting the county has secured a $1 million federal grant to further study the airport-to-downtown rail project as well as one that would run along Route 28.

It’s not known, at this point, how much the airport-to-downtown project might cost.

Sign in with a social network: