Columbus to Chicago in 30 Minutes, New Proposal

If that headline didn’t totally blow your friggin’ mind, then you seriously need a pick-me-up, because Columbus just became a semi-finalist for the Hyperloop One Global Challenge that would launch people from Columbus to Chicago in 30 minutes, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

The way it works is pretty simple actually — a tube is elevated off the ground (or dug into the ground) and powered by magnets and forced air in the low pressure space. Six people are placed in a pod, the pod goes in the tube, and the tube sends them to Chicago at the speed of over 700mph. 

You could work in Chicago and still live in Columbus. It already takes 30 minutes to drive from Upper Arlington or Clintonville to Downtown in traffic, so why not do the commute in a comfy pod on your way to the Windy City?

The proposal also suggests that commuters would also be able to get to Pittsburg in 15 minutes. The concept has been pushed and championed by Elon Musk, that awesome billionaire, businessman, science guy that initiated PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors.

Columbus-based Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission brought forth the proposal, though they did say they don’t know how much it will cost but that the “potential costs and public-private partnership financing strategies will be evaluated.”

Once the Hyperloop system is built, it would be extremely cost effective as it could not only move people, but also goods on the same gallon value, said Thomas Goldsby, chair of Ohio State University’s Department of Marketing & Logistics, to the Dispatch.

Columbus is among 35 other semi-finalists from 17 other countries. Finalists will be chosen in May and MORPC and others will showcase their presentations April 6 in Washington, D.C.

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