Hyperloop Link Between Pittsburgh And Philadelphia To Be Studied

A consultant will examine the feasibility of building a high-speed hyperloop system that would between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia that would stop in Harrisburg and extend from Philadelphia to Wilkes-Barre and Scranton.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has awarded a contract for up to $2 million for hyperloop preliminary planning, engineering and support services to Aecom Technical Services Inc. In 2016, the global construction and design firm was hired to Elon Musk's SpaceX to build its Hyperloop test track.

Hyperloop is a proposed transportation system in which pods carrying passengers shoot through tubes at speeds of up to 700 mph. It’s been compared to the pneumatic tubes used to shuttle people in the old cartoon “The Jetsons,” but on a much larger scale.

The turnpike commission awarded the contract last week at the direction of the state House, which last fall approved a resolution calling for a hyperloop feasibility study that also would examine the potential impact such a system would have on existing rail and aviation systems throughout the state.

The resolution came after transportation agencies in the Columbus, Ohio, area and in Illinois announced a $1.2 million study of a hyperloop connecting Columbus to Chicago that could make the 350-mile journey to just 30 minutes. A hyperloop conceivably would cut the travel time for the roughly 320-mile trip between Downtown Pittsburgh and Center City Philadelphia to under a half-hour.

Hyperloop travels two to three times faster than high-speed rail and magnetic levitation trains and 10 to 15 times faster than traditional rail via electric propulsion through a low pressure tube. The hyperloop vehicle floats above the track using magnetic levitation and glides for long distances due to ultra-low aerodynamic drag; and pods accelerate until they reach a speed where they levitate like a boat moving along water.

Subscribe to Pittsburgh Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.