CLEVELAND, Ohio – Proponents of a high-speed hyperloop line connecting Cleveland to Pittsburgh and Chicago released a feasibility study Monday that recommends quickly performing an environmental analysis that could lead to construction by 2023.

A hyperloop system would be a new form of surface transportation zooming passengers and freight in capsules riding magnetic-levitation tracks through large-scale vacuum tubes at speeds of up to 760 mph.

“Hyperloop meets the region’s [transportation] capacity needs and does so faster, cheaper, and more sustainably than other options currently available,” Grace Gallucci, executive director of the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, said in a statement accompanying the study.

NOACA spent $100,000 of its own money and raised an additional $600,000 to help pay for the $1.3 million study. Los Angeles-based Hyperloop Transportation Technologies contributed $600,000.

Gallucci said Monday that NOACA stands ready to continue its collaboration with HTT as both entities pursue a $5 million federal grant that would help pay for the environmental impact study needed before a 6-year construction period could begin.

The 160-page study released Monday, produced by TEMS, a consulting firm based in Frederick, Maryland, provides extensive detail backing up information released by NOACA recently in advance of the completion of the report.

The regional agency said last week, for example, that depending on which of three routes is chosen, a hyperloop line joining the three cities could cost from $24.7 billion to $29.8 billion to build.

The report states that the most profitable route, following existing toll roads, would produce operating profits of $30 billion over 25 years, with a net income of $6.6 billion.

The report estimates that travel between Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Chicago will grow from 40 million to 50 million trips a year between 2020 and 2050. Hyperloop’s share of those trips would rise from 12 million to 17 million a year. Some 48% of those trips would be diverted from highways.

“This means hyperloop will be able to absorb all the intercity traffic growth in the corridor between 2020 and 2050 taking pressure off the interstate highway system," the report states.

The HyperloopTT system proposed for the Great Lakes region would be designed to produce more energy than it consumes over the course of a year, the report said. Among other sustainable technologies, the system would cover the elevated tubes with solar panels.

The report does not contain estimated fares, but says, “fare levels are expected to be lower than the Northeast Corridor high-speed rail fares.’’

For social and leisure travel, “fares will be similar to or lower than the level of fares that Amtrak typically charges in the Midwest for its 79 mph service,’’ the report said. “Fares will be about 60% of air fares.”

Hyperloop stations would be designed to create an “experience of effortless, smooth movement with no waiting,’’ the report said.

Over the 25-year life of the project, the report estimates hyperloop would create new jobs equivalent to more than 931,000 “person years” of work, plus 40,000 temporary jobs from construction.

Total income in the corridor would grow $47.6 billion from 2025 to 2050. The Chicago, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh regions would see income increases of $21.5 billion, $9.8 billion, and $7.6 billion respectively, during the period.

The report estimates that average household income in what it defines as a “super zone” of Northeast Ohio counties around Cleveland would increase from $81,594 to $114,624 between 2020 and 2050, at an average annual growth of 1.14%.

The report recommends that a new, public-private agency should be created to develop and operate what they call the Great Lakes Hyperloop system.

“The study validates what we have been saying for a few years now,” Dirk Ahlborn, chairman of HyperloopTT, said in a news release. “Hyperloop makes economic sense.”

Additional hyperloop coverage by Steven Litt

- Cleveland hyperloop benefits would justify $29.8 billion price tag: study

- Hyperloop study shows potential for big economic gains, fast travel from Cleveland to Chicago

- Is hyperloop hyped in Ohio? Critics say yes, but planners say it’s time to explore the technology

- NOACA signs agreement with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies to explore Cleveland-Chicago routes