A global infrastructure company called “AECOM” has proposed a hyperloop transportation to the Central Texas transportation leaders. The new high-speed rail would run along the I-35 corridor, linking Fort Worth, Waco, Killeen-Temple, Austin, San Antonio, and Laredo. The speed of this new hyperloop would be around 200 miles per hour, so getting from one city to the next would be a matter of 20 minutes or so. Right now, it takes hours, as traffic congestion, speed limits and safety requirements make the travel slow, while entering and exiting the Interstate 35 isn’t exactly a walk in the park.
Of course, hyperloops are amazing on paper, and the Central Texas Transportation has received similar proposals quite a few times in the past. The question is always the cost of the project, the feasibility, and how quickly it can be realized. In the case of the AECOM proposal, there is no cost estimation yet, and the firm believes that they have a few decades of time before the “green-light” decisions are taken anyway. In a few months, they will be in a position to provide a more accurate estimation about what funding would be required for such a project.
AECOM is a large engineering firm employing about 87000 experts, and holding a position in the Fortune 500 list. While they have built sports stadiums, the Abu Dhabi International Airport, highways, marina bays, universities, and the New York Trade Center, they have never developed a hyperloop system before. However, their size as well as the essence of their proposal has gotten the attention of CAMPO (Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization), who are asking for more details from them now. That said, the cogs are already begining to turn, and it looks like hyperloops will enjoy a bright future in the United States, as well as around the globe in the following years.
