Great Lakes Hyperloop years, not decades, away from development, NOACA executive director says

Credit: Hyperloop Transportation Technologies

The Great Lakes Hyperloop project, which is slated to be America’s first multi-state hyperloop system, is closer than just a pipe dream, Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) Executive Director Grace Gallucci said.

NOACA signed an official agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation in early 2018 supporting a hyperloop route in the Great Lakes megaregion, specifically from Cleveland, Ohio, to Chicago, Ill., and Pittsburgh, Pa. The cities along the route would be connected in just over an hour, the project boasts. The Great Lakes Hyperloop System is currently being examined under a $1.3 million, shared-cost feasibility study co-organized with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (Hyperloop TT), which will be released next month.

“Once the study is completed, NOACA and partners will pursue an environmental impact statement followed by the construction of the project,” Gallucci told Transportation Today. “This project is years – not decades – away from becoming a reality.”

Hyperloop technology, a developing transportation system that brings airplane speeds to ground travel in a safe, efficient, and sustainable way, is currently being seen at various stages of research and testing throughout the country.

The technology works by placing passenger and cargo inside capsules that levitate above a track inside a tube using electromagnetic technology and a linear electric motor for propulsion. By creating a low-pressure environment inside the tube using vacuum technology, surface friction is considerably reduced, allowing for not only faster speeds, but a safer, cleaner and quieter form of energy-efficient transport.

Aside from the sheer speed of travel, benefits of a hyperloop technology include modernizing aging transportation infrastructure as well as improving the environmental footprint by running off of sustainable energy. Hyperloop systems are also cheaper to build than high-speed rail, specifics of which will be released in November’s feasibility study, Gallucci said.

Other benefits include less travel pollution, economic boosts with job opportunities in engineering, technologies, construction, manufacturing, hyperloop operations, as well as increased economic development around station areas.

Shorter routes and commutes will also open Midwest region communities to more job, home, and educational opportunities and overall travel time will be reduced with smaller pods leaving destinations more frequently than high-speed rail and air travel.

According to the NOACA, the Great Lakes megaregion represents a $15 billion transportation market with tens of millions of tons of cargo and millions of passengers connecting to the cities each year.

“I-90 and I-80 both traverse the U.S. from the East Coast to the West Coast, and both of these interstates become one from Cleveland to Chicago, making this a great first Hyperloop route in the U.S.,” Gallucci said.

The region also contributes roughly $232 billion to Canada-U.S. trade and accounts for 29 percent of research and development in the United States and 77 percent in Canada.

“This is a critical corridor of commerce in the United States with millions of people and tons of cargo passing through it every year,” said Dirk Ahlborn, CEO and Co-Founder of HyperloopTT, one of the first companies to begin development of the hyperloop technology. “We’re pleased to be taking a historic first step towards a regional network.”

The Great Lakes feasibility study includes several areas of research, such as alternative routes, station locations, infrastructure, sustainable technology, economic impact, regional impact for passenger and cargo transport, market share analysis, among other topics.

“NOACA believes in investing in projects that promote mobility options and improving quality of life,” Gallucci said. “What Hyperloop represents to Northeast Ohio and the entire Great Lakes megaregion is so much more than just speed and efficiency. It opens our region to the rest of the Midwest, connecting us all in a network of technology, resources, people, and jobs.”

Gallucci continued, stating that the project has been met with great excitement from stakeholders and the general public who recognize the benefits of the project’s objectives and goals.

NOACA is a federally designated metropolitan planning organization that covers an area of 2.1 million people with a gross domestic product of $125 billion. Gallucci said that NOACA’s portion of the feasibility study was made possible through NOACA and grant partners, including the Ohio Department of Transportation, the Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission, The Cleveland Foundation, and the Richard King Mellon Foundation.

Earlier this month, Virgin Hyperloop One, the only hyperloop company in the world to successfully test its technology at scale, visited Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. to continue to garner bipartisan support for its technology.

“With hyperloop, we are launching the first new mode of mass transportation in over 100 years: one that is faster, cleaner and cheaper than ever before. When private innovators work hand in hand with lawmakers and policymakers at all levels of government, innovation thrives,” said Josh Giegel, co-founder and chief technology officer at Virgin Hyperloop One. “We are proud to have support from these federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, all who recognize that the future of our national, regional, and local economies hinges on advancing new, efficient forms of mass transit.”

The company is building on the momentum of the Department of Transportation’s newly-formed Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT) Council. They also took the opportunity to update legislators on the Great Lakes project as well as other studies in the country.

The Missouri Hyperloop Coalition released the country’s first hyperloop feasibility study earlier this year, confirming the viability of a St. Louis to Kansas City route. A feasibility study in the Dallas-Forth Worth region was also recently launched, examining a route between Forth Worth and Laredo. DevLoop, Nevada’s hyperloop test site, continues as an active test site.