Hyperloop One announces 10 winning routes around the world

From 2,600 submissions, the company selected 10 routes covering Mexico, India, the U.S., the U.K., and Canada

By Barbara Eldredge@barbaraeldredge Sep 19, 2017, 10:30am EDT

The Hyperloop One test track under construction in Nevada.

For those of you thinking that the hyperloop promise—to connect disparate regions with high-speed pneumatic-tube transit while reducing carbon emissions—is all hype, you won’t be faulted for skepticism. It seems like almost every month, there’s a new hyperloop route announcement, while the technology is still in its infancy.

The latest development again hails from Hyperloop One, one of the leading companies in the race for a feasible hyperloop design. The company asked the world to send in proposals for future hyperloop routes and selected ten of the roughly 2,600 submissions.

Welcome to Curbed’s first-ever Transportation Week!

It's time for a weeklong romp through all things related to transportation in the U.S. We'll be focusing on the topics most pressing to cities: everything from ways to improve public transportation in cities to ranking the best neighborhoods across the country for living a car-free life, plus a friendly competition between NYC, San Francisco, and Los Angeles to determine which city has the best public transit in the U.S. All aboard!

But winning is no guarantee that the company will build routes in these areas. Rather, Hyperloop One will move forward with analyses to explore the potential of each route as well as host workshops in the winning countries and begin building partnerships. The company has already teamed up with the Colorado Department of Transportation for a feasibility study.

The winning routes in the US connect Cheyenne to Denver to Pueblo, Chicago to Columbus to Pittsburgh, Miami to Orlando, and Dallas to Houston. In the U.K., routes would connect Edinburgh to London, and Glasgow to Liverpool. Mexico’s route would link Mexico City and Guadalajara. In India, routes would link Bengaluru and Chennai, and Chennai and Mumbai. Canada’s route would connect Toronto to Montreal.