Wanna Get Away... To Stl?

by Ibrahim Almutawa

KC To STL Hyperloop (and back)

The Hyperloop from Kansas City to St. Louis has had people excited for what the future holds in terms of transportation. According to Shively (2018), the Hyperloop is a high speed interconnection of tubes, that will allow people to travel at speeds of more than 700 miles per hour, making the travel from Kansas to St. Louis just under thirty minutes long. Normally, to cover this distance, one needs at least three hours and 40 minutes by car, and about 55 minutes by plane. This means that making the Hyperloop a possibility would dramatically change the way in which people travel.

The Hyperloop is based on Elon Musk’s dream of making a nearly supersonic speed, tube-based mode of transport. Musk came up with the idea of these tubes as a reaction to traffic jam that most of the cities in the country suffered. The Hyperloop involved movement through nearly airless tubes hence ensuring that there was minimal resistance, allowing for the extreme speeds. However, while all this information sounds appealing, it is not easy or cheap to set the tubes up. The Kansas City Hyperloop, for instance, requires an extensive study to establish whether the project is viable. The cost of the study alone has been estimated at $1.5 million. However, all this will be paid for using private funds and not taxpayer money which makes the project even more appealing. However, once the study is completed, the state would have to pay for the project.

The entire project, has been estimated at between $7.5 million and $10 million to complete (Barker, 2018). Virgin Hyperloop One (the company developing the technology), through its spokesperson, argued that that amount should be considered a bargain. That is, while it looks rather pricey, it is quite a reasonable quote when the cost to benefit analysis is done. The Hyperloop would not only be much faster than the average modes of transport, it would also be cheaper, and reduce the amount of traffic on roads across the state. In addition, it would create a demand for people to travel between the two locations allowing both to gain income from their visitors.