Holly McNamara, a Select Board official in Somerset, said she feels one step closer to seeing that become a reality after a visit to Washington, D.C., last week to make her case to a panel of judges.
Under McNamara's proposal, the transportation system — called the Hyperloop — would roll through Somerset on its way to Boston, Providence and other destinations at airline speeds or faster, making ground-based travel the quickest it has ever been, and all for the price of a bus ticket, according to company Hyperloop One, which is testing the technology out west. The Hyperloop is based on a concept by entrepreneur and inventor Elon Musk.
The company is considering 11 proposals, chosen from more than 2,600 submitted in the United States and some from other countries. The Somerset proposal was crafted by McNamara and Boston College student John Myron. Hyperloop One will choose 12 finalists, then three winners as the possible first locations for Hyperloop routes.
During the team's presentation, which included a slide show and video about the area, judges commented that the Somerset proposal had the most support from government of any submissions. The suggested route has received endorsements from Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Edward Markey, among other officials. McNamara said she believes she is also the only elected official directly involved with a team. She and Myron are the only people proposing a Hyperloop corridor for the Northeast.
McNamara said she envisions the Hyperloop running along the shoulder of a highway or at other locations where it would not cause disruption.
"It's a very small structure," she said. "It's completely enclosed. It's quiet. There's no emissions."
The keystone of the presentation was SouthCoast, the southeastern portion of Massachusetts that includes Somerset, Westport, Dartmouth, Fall River and New Bedford, among other communities. The region has not been directly connected to Boston in almost 60 years and efforts to remedy that with South Coast Rail have been slow, McNamara said. Hyperloop would not be a replacement, but a supplement to this initiative, according to McNamara. She said Hyperloop Massachusetts is looking to work with the entire state to bring the technology to life.
The Hyperloop, under the proposal, would carry both passengers and cargo. The route from Boston to Somerset and Providence would be a "proof of concept," according to McNamara and Myron, to be done before it is extended all over the east coast.
With Hyperloop One, passengers and cargo are loaded into a pod and accelerate gradually via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube. The pod quickly lifts above the track using magnetic levitation and glides at airline speeds for long distances due to ultra-low aerodynamic drag, according to a news release from the company. Last week, the company finalized the tube installation on its 1,640-foot-long DevLoop, located in the desert outside of Las Vegas. The facility serves as an outdoor lab for its proprietary levitation, propulsion, vacuum and control technologies.
In the Somerset presentation, Myron said Boston and Somerset complement each other perfectly. He said Boston is a thriving city and Somerset is in need of a change, which the Hyperloop could spur. He said the Hyperloop would be Boston's transportation revitalization and Somerset's reincarnation. The panel of judges was given a history of Somerset and the SouthCoast with its proven industry leaders, 40-mile inland waterway, shipbuilding economy, deep water ports, coastal trade, railroad lines, coal distribution ports and power generation.
McNamara told the judges that Somerset, along with the SouthCoast, is a proven industry leader and was instrumental in the formation of not only New England but the United States. She talked about the town's shipbuilding industry, which started not long after the first settlers arrived in 1680, and coastal trade that made the town the third busiest port in Massachusetts during the 18th century. She said the War of 1812 brought Somerset's maritime economy to a standstill during the 1820s and as Somerset's economy declined, neighboring Fall River began its rise as the center of the cotton textile industry.
McNamara said that, historically, Somerset is a town that has embraced new ideas that would contribute toward a prosperous community going back to the mid-19th century when the town broadened its industrial base. World-famous clipper ships that took passengers to the California Gold Rush were designed and built in Somerset. Two different railroad lines crossed the town and the river. The trains transported passengers, agricultural products and coal to provide nearby cities with warmth and energy.
The team also attended a conference where the founders of Hyperloop One spoke and met some of the other teams presenting proposals.
"It's a big collaborative effort, because I think our goal and the goals of the other teams is to bring this to the United States and the world," McNamara said.
The finalists for the Hyperloop One routes are scheduled to be announced next month. Feasibility studies will be done on the three proposed Hyperloop corridors chosen from those finalists.
"We're hoping our chances are good," McNamara said. "We want everyone on board."
The Hyperloop One Global Challenge kicked off in May 2016 as an open call to individuals, universities, companies and governments to develop comprehensive proposals for deploying Hyperloop One's transport technology in their region. Five of the proposals — including those from Texas, Florida, Colorado, Nevada and Missouri — involve officials from their state Departments of Transportation.
Proposed routes that would reduce passenger and cargo transport times across some of the country's most heavily trafficked regions including Los Angeles-San Diego, Miami-Orlando and Seattle-Portland. The longest distance proposal, Cheyenne-Houston, would run 1,152 miles across four states, reducing to 1 hour and 45 minutes a journey that currently takes 17 hours by car or truck.
"The U.S. has always been a global innovation vanguard — driving advancements in computing, communication and media to rail, automobiles and aeronautics," said Shervin Pishevar, executive chairman of Hyperloop One, in a news release. "Now, with Hyperloop One, we are on the brink of the first great breakthrough in transportation technology of the 21st century, eliminating the barriers of time and distance and unlocking vast economic opportunities."
©2017 The Standard-Times, New Bedford, Mass. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
