The Regional Transportation Council is still dead set on establishing an Interstate 30 corridor between Dallas and Fort Worth for high-speed transportation, but it has decided the futuristic hyperloop of Elon Musk’s dreams will not be the mode of transport. Rather, it will concentrate its efforts strictly on a high-speed rail system capable of operating at 250 miles per hour.
The hyperloop is still a developing technology without a current path for approval and use, said Brendon Wheeler, the principal transportation planner for the Regional Transportation Council (RTC), and that could delay the development of the corridor.
The hyperloop, a term coined and advocated by Musk, is a proposed high-speed transportation system for both passengers and rail. Hyperloop designs employ three essential components: tubes, pods and terminals. The tube is a large sealed, low-pressure system, usually a long tunnel. The pod is a coach pressurized at atmospheric pressure that runs substantially free of air resistance or friction inside this tube by using aerodynamic or magnetic propulsion. The terminal handles pod arrivals and departures. In theory, a hyperloop is believed capable of hitting speeds of around 700 miles per hour.
In lieu of a hyperloop, the high-speed railway routes being evaluated by the RTC run along I-30 between Dallas and Fort Worth, with a stop in Arlington.
The project’s next step involves an environmental analysis priced at $11 million and could take as long as two years. A story in The Texan says ridership estimates are not currently available but will be studied more fully during the environmental process. Ridership is expected to be heavily influenced by whether the high-speed rail project will connect directly to a completed Texas Central project from Dallas to Houston, as well as a future project between Fort Worth and Laredo.
Wheeler, of the RTC, indicated that funding for the rail system’s construction will come from private investors after the project clears the approval process.
“We are trying, as the public planning sector, to help minimize the risk and attract private investment,” he told The Texan, noting that the project could end up being a public-private partnership, as was used to develop the region’s airport.
Wheeler reportedly said the hyperloop may still come to the region because companies are expressing an interest in building a test facility in the area.
Mike Consol (m.consol@irei.com) is editor of Real Assets Adviser. Follow him on Twitter (@mikeconsol) and LinkedIn (linkedIn.com/in/mikeconsol) to read his latest postings.