A high-speed pneumatic tube transportation line that would whisk travelers across the 250-mile expanse between St. Louis and Kansas City in a half hour is feasible, its backers say.
You'll have to take their word for it.
On Wednesday, they touted a feasibility study conducted by Kansas City-based engineering giant Black & Veatch for the firm developing the technology, Virgin Hyperloop One, and a coalition of groups that include the University of Missouri System, the St. Louis Regional Chamber and the KC Tech Council. The actual study, though, wasn't released, with Virgin Hyperloop citing concern about intellectual property theft.
A spokesman for the company, which British billionaire Richard Branson took control of nearly a year ago, said Virgin Hyperloop One plans to release the study eventually.
He did release a cost estimate for the Missouri project. Not surprisingly, it would be pricey: $30 million to $40 million per mile, or $7.5 billion to $10 billion assuming a 250-mile track.
But that's considerably cheaper _ roughly 40 percent so _ than a high-speed rail line between the two cities, Virgin Hyperloop One spokesman Ryan Kelly said. It's also far cheaper per mile than the $24 billion, 360-mile line being proposed by Colorado officials.
Part of the reason is that the Missouri Department of Transportation lent its support to the project, first pitching the route three years ago. Thus right of way along Interstate 70 could be readily available for a track that requires less real estate than a high-speed rail line.
"The big hurdle is usually eminent domain issues," Kelly said.
The other component working in Missouri's favor is that the I-70 corridor is "relatively straight" and "relatively flat," said Drew Thompson, who led the feasibility study for Black & Veatch. The firm, which performed the study as a donation to the coalition, estimates 16,000 to 52,000 people daily would use the hyperloop, which could include a stop in Columbia, Mo.
The technology, first envisioned recently by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, is being pursued by regions around the world. Countries such as Dubai and India are pitching one, while in the U.S. routes connecting Chicago to Pittsburgh and Dallas to Houston, among others, are being pitched.
Kelly said the company hopes to begin work on routes within 10 years. In different regions of the world, an initial track could later be built into a larger continental network. Missouri could well be that initial route in the U.S., he said.
Missouri officials recently visited the Hyperloop One's testing complex in Las Vegas. A video released by Virgin Hyperloop One shows University of Missouri System President Mun Choi, incoming Missouri House Speaker Elijah Haahr, R-Springfield, and Missouri Department of Economic Development Director Rob Dixon endorsing the project from the testing site.
Where exactly the "portals" that passengers use to board the hyperloop would go _ Thompson said one near St. Louis Lambert International Airport made sense on the eastern side of the state _ is the next conversation. That, and where the money would come from.
