Elon Musk may be seeing his vision coming to life soon in Missouri, as a public-private partnership called Missouri Hyperloop Coalition has been formed in order to study the feasibility of constructing a hyperloop route between St. Louis and Kansas City.
The study is supported by Musk's Hyperloop One, which is based in Los Angeles. Various groups will be participating in the effort, including the Missouri Department of Transportation, the St. Louis Regional Chamber, the KC Tech Council, the Missouri Innovation Center, and the University of Missouri.
Travelling the 248-mile route between the two cities usually takes around three hours and 40 minutes by car. Via airplane, it takes about 55 minutes. If to be completed, the hyperloop can transport commuters between the cities in just 31 minutes.
Recently, Hyperloop One revealed the 10 finalists of its global challenge, a contest launched to find the best places in the world to build hyperloop tracks. Here, participants submitted their hyperloop route proposals, with teams from Mexico, India, U.S., U.K., and Canada getting slots in the top 10.
The St. Louis-Kansas City route seemingly did not make it to the final. However, according to Kansas City Tech Council President Ryan Weber, the Missouri proposal secured a finalist spot once additional information was provided by the Missouri Department of Transportation to Hyperloop One.
"It is clear from our conversations with Hyperloop One that they were impressed with our initial proposal," said Andrew Smith, St. Louis Regional Chamber vice president of entrepreneurship and innovation, according to a report from Bizjournals. "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 us to take the next step with an engineering feasibility study."
The feasibility study will cost between $1 million to $1.5 million, and will be funded privately.
