Virgin Hyperloop scraps plans to connect Columbus to Chicago, Pittsburgh

A proposal to connect Chicago, Columbus and Pittsburgh via a magnetic hyperloop tube is pending.

Driving the news: Virgin Hyperloop laid off half of its staff in February and announced it was focusing on moving goods rather than people.

• The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission had been working with the company since 2017 on developing plans, but told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week that no further studies were planned until high-speed transportation technology is n would not have been approved by the federal government.

Rollback: A study published in 2019 estimated the cost of the project at $25-30 billion. Skeptics have long questioned its feasibility.

What they say : “Central Ohio is an important market for freight transportation in the Midwest,” MORPC said in a statement provided to Axios.

• “At this time, MORPC is still working with Virgin Hyperloop to learn more about the application of their technology in freight transportation.”