Hyperloop One Names 10 Global Challenge Winners

September 14, 2017 by Paul Ausick

After sifting through hundreds of proposals in its Hyperloop One Global Challenge, hyperloop company Hyperloop One announced 10 winners that it intends to work with more closely to plan and prepare preliminary business plans to build a hyperloop transportation system. The winners will be developing their proposals alongside 11 other U.S. teams selected last April with support from the company.

The technology, according to Hyperloop One, involves loading passengers and cargo are into a pod, and accelerating the pod 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. Hyperloop transportation is a concept originally floated by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

The company also said that it will enter a public-private partnership with the state of Colorado’s Department of Transportation and, with support from AECOM to conduct a feasibility study on a route from Cheyenne, Wyoming, through Denver and onto Pueblo, Colorado. That route was among the 10 winners announced this morning.

The list of 10 winners includes four from the United States, two each from the United Kingdom and India, and one each from Mexico and Canada. Here are the routes and travel distances proposed by the winners:

United States
> Cheyenne-Denver-Pueblo: 360 miles
> Chicago-Columbus-Pittsburgh: 488 miles
> Miami-Orlando: 257 miles
> Dallas-Houston: 640 miles

United Kingdom
> Edinburgh-London: 414 miles
> Glasgow-Liverpool: 339 miles

India
> Bengaluru-Chennai: 208 miles
> Mumbai-Chennai: 685 miles

Canada
> Toronto-Montreal: 400 miles

Mexico
> Mexico City-Guadalajara: 330 miles

The winning routes connect 53 urban centers and nearly 150 million people. The combined distance of all 10 routes is 4,121 miles.

The next step toward Hyperloop One’s goal of having three routes running by 2021 is to work with the Global Challenge winners and the 11 U.S. winners announced last April to validate the plans based on forecast business needs and to find partners.

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