Is Hyperloop the real deal?
New studies have lots to answer
The notion of zipping from Columbus to Chicago in a hightech tube faster than most planes fly seems unreal, but a new examination might create more believers.
If feasibility and environmental studies launched by the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission identify payoffs that could come with the proposed Midwest Connect Hyperloop One, the $2.5 million to be spent is a good investment.
At first glance, running a Hyperloop tube-transit system through Columbus from Chicago to Pittsburgh would seem to go far in raising Columbus’ standing as a tech-friendly city of the future, maybe even further than winning the Smart City Challenge in 2016.
Once you get past the mega-cool factor, what’s harder to assess is whether having a Hyperloop here — maybe the first in the country — would be a magnet for the highly skilled workforce of tomorrow, or conversely, allow people to enjoy benefits of living in Columbus with easy access to jobs in Chicago or Pittsburgh. Would it leapfrog central Ohio ahead of large metros that have invested in high-speed rail to make their cities more accessible? How might it impact the city’s arts and entertainment scene?
While the Smart Columbus initiatives now being planned also focus on transit, none of the solutions being created under that banner is likely to be as dramatic or attentiongrabbing as hurtling people and cargo inside protective pods through vacuum tubes from here to Chicago in just under a half-hour.
The feasibility study will explore the Chicago-through-Columbuscorridor that helped Midwest Connect become one of 10 routes selected by Virgin Hyperloop One in global competition that attracted 2,600 proposals. Other approved U. S. routes are in Florida, Texas and Colorado-Wyoming. The second study will examine environmental impacts.
Feasibility will include figuring out demand for Hyperloop travel, assessing economic benefits and making the business case for proceeding. This ninemonth project also will lay out strategies to engage stakeholders and the public. In other words, this study could help move the notion of Hyperloop travel through Columbus from pie-in-thesky to sign-me-up — or shoot it down as undoable.
Hyperloop offers immense potential to wake up Columbus’ appeal on a global scale. MORPC is smart to keep pushing next steps. Its studies need to quantify and qualify the dream for skeptics.