KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Hyperloop, a transportation technology project announced several years ago that could have transported passengers from Kansas City to St. Louis in 30 minutes, is reportedly ceasing operations.
Bloomberg reported Thursday the company, originally created as an idea by Elon Musk, is shutting down and unwinding operations.
The Missouri route was a focus of transportation officials as recently as 2018. A feasibility study released that year identified a route between Missouri’s two largest cities, with a stop halfway in Columbia, was a “feasible and viable option.”
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KSHB 41 News anchor Lindsay Shively visited the Hyperloop test site in April 2018 to learn more about the technology.
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The concept called for building airless tubes, either elevated above ground or buried underneath ground, that would use magnets to propel pods of nine to 12 people through the vacuum. Designers predicted a ride smoother than an airplane.
“There is no such thing as turbulence, right? Because you actually have no air around you on the outside of the pod, so the ride is actually going to be much smoother,” Hyperloop’s Dr. Anita Sengupta told Shively at the time. “You’re not even going to be able to tell you’re going that fast.”
The company’s marketing efforts even included sending a demonstration pod to the 2019 American Royal World Series of Barbecue.
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Ultimately, the Kansas City to St. Louis route lost out in a competitive process to a route that remained under study in West Virginia.
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