DENVER — The team from Hyperloop One, the fast-moving transportation system, has unveiled 11 U.S. routes with the most potential — including three in Colorado.
The first is team Rocky Mountain Hyperloop that would span from Cheyenne, Wyo., to Pueblo with a leg that goes to Vail running 360 miles.
The second is team Colorado Hyperloop that runs from Cheyenne to Pueblo. That plan is 242 miles.
The third, and longest, is team Rocky Mountain Hyperloop Consortium, which would run from Houston to Cheyenne. That spans 1,152 miles, reducing to one hour, 45 minutes a journey that currently takes 17 hours by car or truck.
Hyperloop One recently finished building a 1,640-foot test tube in the desert outside Las Vegas. The concept was first proposed in 2013 by Elon Musk, the founder of the electric car company Tesla.
According to it website, in Hyperloop One, “passengers and cargo are loaded into a pod, and accelerate gradually via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube. The pod quickly lifts above the track using magnetic levitation and glides at airline speeds for long distances due to ultra-low aerodynamic drag.”
The 11 routes have been designed by independent teams through the Hyperloop One Global Challenge announced last year. The finalists were selected based on the feasibility of the projects.
The other routes include a route from Chicago to Pittsburgh; Kansas City, Mo., to St. Louis; a route to all major cities within Texas; a Florida route from Miami to Orlando; a Pacific Northwest route from Seattle to Eugene, Ore.; a Massachusetts route from Boston to Providence, R.I.; one from Los Angeles to San Diego; and one from Las Vegas to Reno, Nev.
Voting on the route that would be most beneficial is being done on the Hyperloop One Facebook page.