Imagine taking a trip to Denver or Houston from Pueblo at 700 miles an hour.

It's not faster than a speeding bullet, but it will go farther.

Executives from Hyperloop One, the fast-moving transportation system, announced this week that three of 11 teams working on routes selected in the United States are in Colorado.

The first team's route is the Rocky Mountain Hyperloop, which would span from Cheyenne to Pueblo with a leg that goes to Vail, running 360 miles.

Another, Colorado Hyperloop, would run from Cheyenne to Pueblo. That plan is 242 miles.

The third team's plan is the Rocky Mountain Hyperloop Consortium, which would run from Houston to Cheyenne. That spans 1,152 miles, reducing to one hour, 45 minutes a journey that now takes 17 hours by automobile.

According to the company's website, Hyperloop One, passengers and cargo are loaded into a pod which accelerates gradually via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube. The pod quickly lifts above the track using magnetic levitation and glides at airline speeds for long distances due to ultra-low aerodynamic drag.

Blake Anneberg, team Colorado Hyperloop founder, said Pueblo is the southern terminus for his route.

"What is unique about our approach is that we introduced an interdisciplinary, collaborative and participatory approach to developing a Hyperloop in Colorado," Anneberg said.

"Pueblo has been very supportive on social media -- especially from Visit Pueblo, as well as some innovative small businesses -- and we would like to continue a dialogue with these groups," Anneberg said.

"We asked ourselves and hundreds of Coloradans, 'What if we could help design this project in a way that is more human-centered, to design it in a way that will help the communities and not hurt them.?'?''

Anneberg said the Hyperloop is all about connection.

"It is about eliminating borders and going beyond the limitations of time and space. It is meant to empower communities, and that's why we wanted to incorporate these future users," he said.

Anneberg said his team used social media and surveys to gather information about how Coloradans might use a Front Range Hyperloop.

Through these surveys he said he found equal interest in a northern route from Denver to Fort Collins, as well as a southern route from Denver to Pueblo. He said he found that Hyperloop construction would benefit Colorado infrastructure, energy and technology sectors, as well as tourism and quality of life measurements.

Anneberg said there was special interest in connecting Hyperloop with recreational areas like national parks, skiing and rafting areas.

If anyone would like to discuss the route with Anneberg's team, they can tweet him at twitter.com/cohyperloop or coloradohyperloop.com/contact/.

According to its website, Hyperloop selected 11 routes in the United States to initiate a nationwide conversation about the future of American transportation.

Of more than 2,600 participants in the Hyperloop One Global Challenge, 11 teams presented routes linking 35 cities and covering more than 2,800 miles. They join 24 other teams from around the globe, each vying to be among 12 finalists. Three eventual winners will work closely with Hyperloop One engineering and business development teams to explore project development and financing.

Rob Lloyd, chief executive officer of Hyperloop One, said that by the year's end the company will have a team of 500 engineers, fabricators, scientists and other employees dedicated to bringing the technology to life.

This week, the company finalized the tube installation on its 1,640-foot-long DevLoop, located in the desert outside of Las Vegas; the facility serves as an outdoor lab for its proprietary levitation, propulsion, vacuum and control technologies.

anthonym@chieftain.com