Missouri Hyperloop
A rendering of the proposed Missouri Hyperloop
In October, Virgin Hyperloop One released a study concluding that building a hyperloop from Kansas City, Missouri, to St. Louis—with a stop in Columbia—along Interstate 70 was feasible. The company, which is the only one to have built a full-scale hyperloop prototype, found that if built, the hyperloop would allow passengers to travel from St. Louis to Columbia in 15 minutes, and from St. Louis to Kansas City in 30 minutes. The transportation model uses a tube and passenger pods that actually float due to magnetic levitation, and which travel through the tube at high speeds using electric propulsion.
Two months on, where are we in our hyperloop quest? SLM talked to Ryan Kelly, head of global marketing communications at Virgin Hyperloop One to find out.
What’s next for the hyperloop project?
Securing funding. Mass transit is typically funded by the public, but the Missouri Hyperloop Coalition—a group made up of Virgin Hyperloop One, engineering firm Black & Veatch, the University of Missouri System, MODOT, and a few other groups—is counting on securing private funding as well. Right now, Kelly says, the coalition is “talking to private investors, to go through these numbers and see if we can get the funds to get the amount of investment that we need to move the project forward.”
How much will it cost to build a hyperloop in Missouri?
The feasibility study didn’t release these details, and Kelly says it depends on where the transit hubs are constructed. But other sources have estimated it could cost $30 million to $40 million per mile. The distance from Kansas City to St. Louis is about 250 miles.
Should funding be secured, Kelly says the group would then “figure out a plan for safety and regulatory both at the federal level and the state level.”
Could Missouri really build the world’s first hyperloop? You never know, says Kelly. However, Virgin Hyperloop One is actually working with the Indian state of Maharashtra on another hyperloop. “They've already decided, yes, we're definitely doing a hyperloop system,” Kelly says. “And yes, we're going to go through the phase of regulatory and whatnot. If all goes as planned, they're hoping to break ground sometime in 2019.”
If we do get a hyperloop, how will security factor into travel?
With the hyperloop being able to travel at speeds of 670 miles per hour, three to four times faster than a high-speed train, consideration has to be given to safety. But will we have to go through something similar to airport security?
“We want to make it less painful than an airplane security screening,” Kelly says. “From a customer experience point of view, we want our customers to feel safe. Safety is our number one priority, and being able to get this regulated, but we also don't want them to feel like they're being accused of something that they're not doing.” Fingerprinting, eye-scanning, and even facial recognition are technologies Virgin Hyperloop One is considering.
