KANSAS CITY – The Missouri Department of Transportation, along with the St. Louis Regional Chamber, Kansas City Tech Council, University of Missouri System, and the Missouri Innovation Center in Columbia have announced the creation of the Missouri Hyperloop Coalition. The coalition is designed to conduct a study to determine the feasibility of constructing a hyperloop in Missouri.
Hyperloop One, a Los Angeles based technology company, is focused on creating hyperloops, a tubular railway system that uses electromagnets to reach an estimated 760 miles per hour. Last year, they announced a competition to identify the most promising locations for their first hyperloop. CEO of Hyperloop One said in September that the company has goals of “implementing three full-scale systems operating by 2021.”
In October of last year, Missouri sent their application for their Global Challenge. Last month, the company decided that the St. Louis-Kansas City route was not selected as one of their top ten sites.
The winners of the competition, four of which are in the United States, will receive “meaningful business and engineering resources and work closely with each of the winning teams/routes to determine their commercial viability,” according to a press release from Hyperloop One. “Hyperloop One will now work closely with each winning team to validate and analyze their proposals further, and provide initial ridership forecasts, business case and preliminary technical analysis of the route and corridor, tailored to the needs of the individual route.”
Though the Missouri route was not selected, the Coalition has decided to design a study that would investigate the feasibility of constructing the hyperloop. The Coalition, organized by Andrew Smith, Bill Turpin, Ryan Weber, Thomas Blair, and other private sector leaders, will need to raise about $1.5 million in private funding to finance the study, according to the St. Louis Regional Chamber.
“It is clear from our conversations with Hyperloop One that they were impressed with our initial proposal,” Vice President of Entrepreneurship and Innovation of the St. Louis Regional Chamber, Andrew Smith said. “Our proposed route connects two major metropolitan areas in the same state along with a major research university, and we have the most favorable regulatory and cost environment of any proposed build site. Hyperloop One is encouraging up to take the next step with an engineering feasibility study.”
Hyperloop One also announced that the Colorado Department of Transportation will be conducting a similar study with a public-private partnership. However, unlike Missouri, Hyperloop One selected Cheyenne-Denver-Pueblo as one of their top ten routes.
Michael Layer is a reporter for the Missouri Times and the Missouri Times Magazine. He joined the Missouri Times in August 2017 after graduating from Goucher College the previous May. To contact Michael, email michael@themissouritimes.com or follow him on Twitter @_MichaelLayer
