Rail transit to regional airports is not the most important component of economic success...

Intra-regional transit should be the focus and mobility on a day in, day out basis is what matters most in terms of overall economic activity. Furthermore, center cities have new found competitive advantage in nonautomobile-based mobility vis-a-vis the suburbs in their regions and vis-a-vis other regions, in terms of attracting new business and economic activity.

On the other hand, see "Transit recommendations include linking Downtown to Oakland," from the Pittsburgh Business Times. From the article:

Rapid transit linking Downtown and Oakland and Downtown and Pittsburgh International Airport are vital to make Pittsburgh economically viable, a transit panel recommended Wednesday.

The panel, called the Transportation Action Team, was established by Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato. It also called for an Oakland Circulator System, which would link the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University to the Pittsburgh Technology Center on Second Avenue.

The system, Onorato said, would be funded through federal transportation dollars and public/private partnerships. "Our goal is linking our region's three economic centers -- Downtown, Oakland and the airport," he said in a statement. "With increasingly tight budgets at the federal, state and local levels, we are looking toward public-private partnerships and innovative funding approaches to make these linkages a reality."