Despite the naysayers and the sheer implausibility of such a futuristic sounding venture, it seems we are one step closer to seeing the proposed hyperloop between Toronto and Montreal become a reality.

Hyperloop One, an LA-based company that has already built a fully functional hyperloop system, has announced the winners of its Hyperloop One Global Challenge. The Montreal-Toronto route is the only Canadian winner.

The route was proposed by the Canadian arm of US engineering firm AECOM, and would include a stop in Ottawa. The proposal says a trip from Toronto to Ottawa would take 27 minutes, and an Ottawa-Montreal trip would take another 12 minutes.

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Launched in May of last year, the Hyperloop One Global Challenge asked individuals, universities, companies, and governments to develop comprehensive proposals for deploying Hyperloop One’s technology in their region. Winners were chosen based on their implementation strategy, stakeholder involvement from the private and public sector, and business cases.

“The Hyperloop One Global Challenge started as a call to action for innovators, engineers, trailblazers and dreamers around the world who shared our vision of creating a new mode of transportation,” said Shervin Pishevar, co-founder and executive chairman of Hyperloop One. “The Global Challenge became a movement of thousands of people from more than 100 countries over six continents. Like us, they believe that Hyperloop will not only solve transportation and urban development challenges within communities, it will unlock vast economic potential and transform how our cities operate and how we live. Our successful test this summer made Hyperloop a reality, and now we’re ready to bring our Hyperloop system to the world.”

Out of the ten international winners selected, one route is in Canada, four are in the US, two in the UK, two in India, and one in Mexico.

The next step will be for Hyperloop One to work with each winning team to analyze and validate proposals, and provide initial ridership forecasts and preliminary technical analysis of the route.

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Hyperloop One also announced it has struck a public-private partnership with the Colorado Department of Transportation and AECOM which will begin a feasibility study for a system in that state. One of the winners was a proposal to connect Colorado cities Cheyenne, Denver and Pueblo with commute times between any cities clocking in at under 30 minutes.

“The results of the Hyperloop One Global Challenge far exceeded our expectations,” said Rob Lloyd, CEO of Hyperloop One. “We had tremendous interest in this competition, and these ten teams each had their unique strengths in showcasing how they will alleviate serious transportation issues in their regions.”