Technology

‘Hyperloop’ tube idea would connect Boston to Providence

The Delft Hyperloop vehicle team from the Netherlands load up their pod during the SpaceX Hyperloop competition January 29, 2017, in Hawthorne, California. Gene Blevins / AFP/Getty Images

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Commuters could rocket from Rhode Island to Boston through tubes at the speed of sound under a proposal that’s a finalist in a private company’s attempt to commercialize a new mode of transportation.

The Hyperloop Massachusetts proposal is the shortest of 11 proposed routes around the United States, selected this week by Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One.

It would connect Boston to Providence, Rhode Island. The plan also calls for a stop in Somerset, Massachusetts, a town of fewer than 20,000 people near Fall River. A proponent who submitted the route idea, Holly McNamara, is a member of the town’s board of selectmen.

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The propulsion technology involves levitating pods that use electricity and magnets to move through a low-friction environment.

It was first proposed by Tesla co-founder Elon Musk in 2013.