Toronto-Montreal Corridor A Hyperloop Finalist

The Toronto-Montreal travel corridor has been named among the top 10 strongest candidates for a hyperloop system that could reduce travel times from five hours to 39 minutes.

The route was the only Canadian winner among the 10 international entries named by Hyperloop One and will be studied to determine its commercial viability.

“The Hyperloop One Global Challenge started as a call to action for innovators, engineers, trailblazers and dreamers around the world who shared our vision of creating a new mode of transportation,” Hyperloop One co-founder and Executive Chairman Shervin Pishevar said in a news release. 

“The Global Challenge became a movement of thousands of people from more than 100 countries over six continents."

The hyperloop experimental technology would place passengers or cargo in cylindrical vehicles that accelerate via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube, lifting above the track using magnetic levitation. The vehicles are expected to glide at airline speeds for long distances due to ultra-low drag.

The Canadian route — proposed by the Canadian branch of Aecom — would include a stop in Ottawa. The Aecom proposal suggests a trip from Toronto to Ottawa would take 27 minutes and the Ottawa-Montreal leg would take another 12 minutes.

The nine other winning entries include four routes in the United States, two each in the United Kingdom and India, and one in Mexico.

Hyperloop One also announced it has struck a public-private partnership with the Colorado Department of Transportation and Aecom, which will begin a feasibility study for a system in that state.

One of the winners was a proposal to connect Colorado cities Cheyenne, Denver and Pueblo with commute times between any cities clocking in at under 30 minutes.