ROCHESTER, Minn. — While critics describe a proposed 85-mile hyperloop link between Rochester and Twin Cities as a pipe dream, the project manager sees it as an opportunity for Minnesota to take the lead in a new mode of transportation in the mold of the creation of U.S. rail and highway systems.

“I think in Minnesota and the United States overall, we’ve kind of gotten into this kind of weird funk that we can’t do hard things. We totally can. Our generations before us built the infrastructure of the country in the 20th century,” said Donna Koren. “I know there is a ton of skepticism, but it’s a once-in-a-century opportunity. … We don’t see a reason to shy away from this just because it’s new.”

The Minnesota nonprofit Global Wellness Connections is proposing a feasibility study to look at connecting Rochester and the Twin Cities via train-like capsules traveling with electromagnetic propulsion at speeds up to 700 mph in an underground or elevated tube.

GWC is spearheaded by a group of Minnesota leaders including Lisa Clarke, the former executive director of Rochester’s Destination Medical Center Economic Development Agency.

The vision for the hyperloop surfaced recently when the GWC organization applied to the Metropolitan Council in the Twin Cities for a $2 million grant to help fund the hyperloop study. If it wins the grant, the nonprofit plans to match it with $500,000 in private funding.

The Met Council is expected to decide on the grant this summer. If approved, GWC would have access to the funds in 2025. Whether or not it receives the Met Council grant, Koren said the organization expects to continue to study the possibility of a hyperloop.

The idea that Rochester and Twin Cities should be connected by mass transit to energize the Minnesota corridor as a medical technology/health care hub is one that has long been supported by governmental and business leaders in the region.

However, that is a vision that has remained elusive. In recent years, a proposal for a high-speed rail link called Zip Rail was eventually derailed by several obstacles. However, Zip Rail was based on proven technology compared to hyperloop tubes.

A hyperloop?

Why did Global Wellness decide to bet on the unproven and highly futuristic hyperloop over a more traditional train?

In addition to being carbon neutral and being faster than even high-speed rail, the option of traveling underground eliminates some potential obstacles.

“A hyperloop could connect the regions in a way that wouldn’t raise the concerns that, for example, Zip Rail did. The underground infrastructure would leave farmland undisturbed, and it would not intersect community roadways the way at-grade rail crossings do. Concerns about crashes, derailments, traffic backups, etcetera, aren’t relevant to an underground hyperloop,” explained Koren.

Under the scenario of a transportation link being built under farmland, she said it is expected the landowners would be paid for the underground rights similar to how air rights are sold above a property.

While there is no proposed route for the hyperloop at this stage, it theoretically could run under or alongside the U.S. 52 without the issue of crossings or overpasses that plagued the Zip Rail promoters.

For people concerned about the experience of traveling 700 mph, Koren said it will not feel like being an astronaut launching into space.

“Nobody is going to be strapped into anything. Nobody is going be pushed up against their seat by G-forces. It’s going to be like riding in a more comfortable airplane,” she said.

Unproven technology

Global Wellness is working with HyperloopTT, a company headquartered in Los Angeles and Toulouse, France, to create the Twin Cities to Rochester route. The company also has offices in North and South America, the Middle East and Europe.

While no hyperloop systems are in use, HyperloopTT has gotten the greenlight to build a 30-mile loop in Italy to connect the cities of Mestre, Venice, and Padua. The goal of that project is to have the system up and running by the 2026 Winter Olympics slated to be held in Italy.

On the other hand, Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One shut down and laid off its 200 employees in December, according to Bloomberg News. Based on an idea by Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, the venture was also associated with Virgin Airlines entrepreneur Richard Branson.

GWC’s main goal is not to build a new type of transportation system, stressed Koren.

“GWC is not pursuing hyperloop as an end in itself. It’s a means to connect the two economic centers of Rochester and the Twin Cities into essentially one larger health care and health sciences economic hub,” she said. “The feasibility study will be focused on exploring, analyzing, and detailing the economic potential that we are making educated projections about today.”

A grand vision

Rochester Mayor Kim Norton, along with Edina Mayor James Hovland and Plymouth Mayor Jeff Wosje jointly wrote a Minneapolis Star Tribune opinion page submission explaining the overall vision.

“Whether it’s (the hyperloop) right for Minnesota is something that the feasibility study could determine. We do know this: Linking two of the great health centers not just in the U.S., but in the world — the Twin Cities and Rochester — is an essential cornerstone of the future of all Minnesota,” they wrote. “In a marketplace of ideas and innovation, connecting on Zoom or brainstorming an idea hours after it hits just won’t be enough.”

Another factor in this vision is that this region of Minnesota was also recently named by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration as one of 31 “Tech Hubs” as part of the federal CHIPS and Science Act.

That means the “Minnesota MedTech Hub 3.0” is in the running for $50 million to $75 million in funding to boost the area’s innovation.

While creating a hyperloop is primarily a solution to the problem of linking the region, building one could benefit Minnesota as a leader in the new transportation technology.

“This is 21st-century work — it is responsive to our growing climate crisis by growing a sustainable brand-new industry. And Minnesotans from all regions of the state can benefit from direct, secondary, and tertiary benefits of both hyperloop and the economic growth of the Twin Cities-Rochester corridor,” said Koren. “The future is only futuristic until we build it.”

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