Columbus connection named as finalist for Hyperloop transportation

Tired of commuting between his Dublin home and Chicago office, Tim Powell is excited about how Hyperloop One could help him — but he has lots of questions.

“Is it safe? Would I throw up?” Powell, 45, asked.

Powell and central Ohio inched closer Thursday to getting to Chicago in 29 minutes using the tube transportation touted by Hyperloop One. The company selected the Chicago-to-Columbus-to-Pittsburgh suggested route as one of 10 international finalists.

The company issued a challenge, seeking the best place to build the new mode of transportation. Initially, 2,600 private-public partnerships registered from 100 countries to try to convince Hyperloop One they were the best place for the project.

Hyperloop One seeks to build something like a pneumatic tube that can move pods of people or goods at speeds up to 671 miles per hour. That means trips to and from Pittsburgh would take 18 minutes and the 360-mile trip to and from Chicago could take 29 minutes. The idea is to provide the capacity of a train at the speed of a plane.

That would be ideal for Powell who lives in Dublin with his wife and three children. A consultant to food service and restaurant companies, Powell spends about 40 percent of his time in a Chicago office. When there, it takes him 45-90 minutes to drive seven miles from where he stays to that Downtown Chicago office, far longer than the projected 29-minute commute from Columbus using Hyperloop.

“That would be awesome. I’d take that in a second,” Powell said. “If it’s 29 minutes, I could go home every night. That would be a huge convenience.”

Still, Powell is concerned about the overall cost of building the system that would link the three cities and their millions in population. He wonders if individual tickets will be comparable to airfare, and he’s particularly curious about how passengers will be protected.

“I’d also want to know the safety of ... going 671 miles per hour in a tube,” Powell said.

There aren’t answers to many of his questions. The price of the system is unknown as is how it will be paid for and when it will be completed.

Thursday’s finalist selection is the latest transportation win for Columbus.

Last year, Columbus beat out 77 other cities to win the Smart Cities challenge. It came with $50 million in grants and aims to create a smart transportation system where vehicles and roads communicate with each other, and technology is used to make travel easier, more efficient and cleaner.

“Our goal is to better connect Columbus to the world and we think this helps us do that,” said William Murdoch, executive director of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, which made the local proposal to Hyperloop One.

MORPC also projects the area’s population will grow by 500,000 to 1 million by 2050, noting those people and the goods they will use need efficient, improved and effective transportation.

“The growing region that we are is not afraid to look at our future,” Murdoch said.

One of the reasons Hyperloop One made the Chicago-to-Columbus-Pittsburgh route a finalist is the strong public-private partnerships created across the four states.

Such a route, Hyperloop One believes, could create a “megaregion” that includes 181 universities, 15 professional sports teams and a greatly expanded pool of talent from which employers could choose.

“We have three major regions that aren’t connected now,” Murdoch said. “Why would you not want to connect the fastest growing city in the Midwest with the largest city in the Midwest?”

The mayors of Columbus, Pittsburgh and Chicago and Ohio Gov. John Kasich praised the announcement.

The 10 finalists now must meet with Hyperloop One to explore implementation.

The other U.S. finalists are Dallas-Laredo-Houston; Cheyenne-Denver-Pueblo, and Miami-Orlando.

Non-U.S. finalists are Toronto-Montreal; Mexico City-Guadalajara; Edinburgh-London; Glasgow to Liverpool; Mumbai-Chennai, and Bengaluru-Chennai.

http://www.dispatch.com/news/20170914/columbus-connection-named-as-finalist-for-hyperloop-transportation