In September of 2017 the ‘Toronto to Montreal route’ was chosen as a winner of the Hyperloop One Global Challenge. The AECOM Canada team proposal beat out hundreds of other submissions for what could some day be one of the most ecologically and technologically significant transportation projects of all time (read more here). 10 teams were chosen as winners in the Hyperloop One Global Challenge, with routes encompassing the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico, India, and Canada. According to Hyperloop One, the company would “…commit meaningful business and engineering resources and work closely with each of the winning teams/routes to determine their commercial viability.

It is interesting to note that Hyperloop One has named Buffalo as one of the cities that would, most likely benefit from the Tor-Mon route, as additional US extension routes would only be a matter of time. Buffalo/The Falls would be highly considered as an entry point into the US.

According to Hyperloop One, a route between metropolitan areas of Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal would encompass the fourth most populous area in North America. It is namely for that reason, the route has been named as one of the winners in the Hyperloop One competition. AECOM Canada’s proposal was selected out of the 2600 teams that submitted entries.

Can you imagine traveling at 700 MPH in a ‘vactrain’? It’s a heck of a lot better than sitting in hours of traffic every day (if you’re working in Toronto), that’s for sure. Currently, there are 450,000 vehicles within city limits on Highway 401 in Toronto on any given day, and those numbers are still increasing. Not only would people ditch their cars to take the clean and efficient Hyperloop One to work, a trip from Montreal to Toronto would be reduced from 5 hours to 39 minutes. It’s also cheaper than other high speed modes of transportation, including travel by plane. Just think about that for a minute.

Incredibly, this futuristic mode of transportation is 100% emissions-free. The Tor-Mon route would also service one of the largest bio-clusters in the world – the Québec-Ontario Life Sciences Corridor. For years, cities such as Toronto and Montreal have been researching high speed train options as the solution to the transportation problems that they face. There have been roadblocks along the way, including issues with land acquisition. If these governments are to retrain their focus on the Hyperloop One option, thus creating the nucleus of a true mega-region, then Buffalo’s future would certainly shine a lot brighter in the realm of transportation potential.