Potential Hyperloop Route May Come to Cleveland

Northeast Ohio is getting in on the latest craze in new transportation technology – the hyperloop. 

The idea is to build a vacuum sealed tunnel and send a passenger car through it, propelled by magnets.

In theory, people could travel inside at 700 miles an hour. Tests in a tunnel in Nevada have reached 240.

And now a California company called Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, the regional transportation agency NOACA and the Illinois Department of Transportation will study possible routes between Chicago and Cleveland.

A competing route – from Pittsburgh to Chicago through Columbus – is being considered by another company – Virgin Hyperloop One.

NOACA’s role in the study of a Cleveland to Chicago route is not fully funded, but is touted by the company as the first official agreement between a hyperloop developer and government agencies.