Entrepreneur Robert Shields is looking for public interest in a futuristic concept for fast travel.
Shields is known for embracing innovative thinking and hosting an annual “regenerative economy summit” in Fairbanks. This will be his sixth one.
“And this year we have Daryl Oster talking about high speed transit. It's just like, it's just that this year, the kind of stars have lined up. And so with the support of the Pipefitters, there's a good chance that we could get a demonstration project or something going here,” Shields said.
By “regenerative economy,” he means using models from nature and applying them to engineering our communities, such as how we lay out our streets, or how we build our transportation systems.
He developed the Northstar Economic Development District, which was endorsed by the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly.
The Friday meeting will host Oster, from his company, Evacuated Tube Transport Technology or ET3. That’s the tradename for a network of tubes that have the air removed to eliminate friction for magnetically levitated capsule-cars. Yes tubes. Imagine a railroad going around the world, but in pipe. And there’s no track as the capsules are floating magnetically in a vacuum.
“Transportation is key to survival, but it's dangerous, often congested, it depends on combustion of oil that could be employed for much more valuable uses,” Oster said.
Oster says the mag-lev system is ultra-efficient. The cars would carry people, or cargo, everything from crude oil and liquified natural gas to food.
“ET3's long term vision includes ultra-safe travel from Fairbanks to the Taj Mahal in two hours for 50 bucks,” he said.
Oster says it is do-able, and he wants to prove it.
“We’re focused on building a three-mile demonstration. Phase one of that project is done. Phase two is a maglev limousine operating in one short section of the tube. Phase three is a 400 mile an hour thrill ride. It pays off in two years if demand is just 5 percent of capacity.”
Shields says part of the Friday meeting will cover scoping and investments for possible lines in Alaska. From the Red Dog Mine to Kotzebue, for example, or Fairbanks to Eielson Air Force Base.
“It’s going to be about three hundred thousand dollars to do a scoping study on a line that would perhaps run from the airport to Eielson, which is what we're looking at for a possible first run,” Shields says.
He says another partner in this Regenerative Economy Summit is the Pipefitters Union. He says it’s a natural partner for a project dealing with pipe.
Shields coordinates these innovation meetings through his non-profit Alliance for Reason and Knowledge, or ARK. The Friday meeting is free, but seating is limited. There is a registration link on the ARK website: A-R-K.us
The Friday meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Pipeline Training Center 3605 Cartwright Street off Van Horn Road in Fairbanks.