Despite a route between Kansas City and St. Louis being cut from the latest round of Hyperloop One’s Global Challenge, regional leaders are still looking to move forward with the high-speed concept.
The Missouri Department of Transportation, the St. Louis Regional Chamber, the KC Tech Council, the University of Missouri System and the Missouri Innovation Center in Columbia announced Tuesday the formation of the Missouri Hyperloop Coalition, a public-private partnership that will work to advance the effort to construct a Hyperloop route linking Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis along I-70. Because of state budget concerns, the coalition will seek money from private sources to fund the next step in the proposal.
The Kansas City to St. Louis route was a finalist in the Hyperloop One Global Challenge, but didn’t make the cut to the final 10. Hyperloop One is a company exploring the possibility and feasibility of high-speed travel using what it calls Hyperloop transportation. It uses electric propulsion, low-pressure tubes and magnetic levitation to gradually accelerate a pod to “airline speeds.”
Although Missouri didn’t advance to the next stage in the challenge, Hyperloop One encouraged the state to conduct a feasibility study, which would cost an estimated $1.5 million.
Missouri’s Hyperloop route would allow a combined 5 million residents to complete a 248-mile route that takes almost four hours by car, or 55 minutes by plane, in 31 minutes at a speed of 671 mph. The proposed route could get people from Columbia to either city in approximately 12 minutes.
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Source: The Columbia Missourian
Image: Hyperloop One
