Pull up to most drive-thru banks or pharmacies and you probably have used a pneumatic tube to send your deposit or prescription to the clerk helping you.

A proposal submitted by a Columbus-based commission would use a similar concept to launch people from here to Chicago in 30 minutes or to Pittsburgh in 15 minutes at more than 700 mph. You could work eight hours every weekday in Columbus but live in Chicago or Pittsburgh and be home each night in time to walk the Magnificent Mile or chow down on the Steel City's Primanti Brothers sandwich topped with coleslaw and fries.

It sounds like science fiction, but the Chicago-to-Columbus-to-Pittsburgh route is one of 35 international semifinalists in the Hyperloop One Global Challenge. Hyperloop One, the California-based company holding the competition, aims to make the fast, easy shipment of people and goods via tube happen. The company says its transportation mode combines the speed of air with the reliability of rail.

"Columbus is the Midwest's fastest-growing area," said William Murdock, executive director of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. "These are corridors we've had an interest in for a long time."

In the concept, which has been pushed by billionaire businessman Elon Musk, passengers would enter a pod, like a small railroad passenger compartment, that seats about 6. The pod would be placed inside the tube, where magnets would make it hover. That's when the vacuum and forced-air in the low-pressure tube would send the pod on its way at speeds in excess of 700 mph. The Hyperloop, though, has no pilot and isn't affected by weather. It can travel in tubes above or below ground.

Murdock didn't know what the new transportation system would cost.

MORPC, in its written presentation to Hyperloop, said Hyperloop wouldn't provide money for construction of the Columbus-centered "Midwest Connect."

"As part of further planning for the corridor, potential costs and public-private partnership financing strategies will be evaluated," MORPC said.

The original list of 2,600 applicants from more than 100 countries has been cut to 35, with the Midwest Connect plan among 11 U.S. entries picked as semifinalists. The 35 semifinalists represent 17 countries from six continents, with finalists planned to be announced in May.

The Midwest Connect proposal was submitted by MORPC, a voluntary association of 60 members providing services for 15 central Ohio counties, including Franklin. Its services involve economic, environmental, transportation, land-use and energy planning and innovation approaches.

As a centrally located transportation hub already, Columbus is prepared to take advantage of the new transportation system, Murdock said.

"This is part of our long-term strategy in central Ohio," he said.

Once the Hyperloop infrastructure is built, the system would be extremely cost-effective, said Thomas Goldsby, chair of Ohio State University's Department of Marketing & Logistics.

"Many more people and tons more of freight could more efficiently move for the same gallon of fuel," Goldsby said.

Because Columbus is within 500 miles of half of the U.S. population and much of the Canadian population, Goldsby believes it would be an ideal user of the new system.

"We're truly a crossroads of America," he said. "We're right in the center of the U.S. supply chain."

MORPC and others will showcase their presentations April 6 in Washington, D.C.

kperry@dispatch.com

@kimballperry