9th April 2017

Hyperloop track ready for first trial run

Hyperloop One, a transport company based in Los Angeles, California, is working to commercialise the Hyperloop concept, for moving passengers and/or cargo at airline speeds at a fraction of the cost of air travel. This week, the company announced that it has completed a tube installation at Las Vegas DevLoop, the world's first full-system test track.

This week, executives from Hyperloop One joined experts and policymakers to reveal details of planned Hyperloop routes in the United States and 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 teams to explore funding and development.

"Hyperloop One is the only company in the world building an operational commercial Hyperloop system," said Rob Lloyd, chief executive officer of Hyperloop One. "This disruptive technology – conceived, developed and built in the U.S. – will move passengers and cargo faster, cleaner and more efficiently. It will transform transportation as we know it and create a more connected world."



A bird's eye view of a potential Hyperloop station. Credit: Hyperloop One

By year's end, the company will have a team of 500 engineers, fabricators, scientists and other employees devoted to bringing this revolutionary new technology to life. Hyperloop One, said Lloyd, can provide broad benefits across communities and markets, support sustainable manufacturing and supplier chains, ease the strain on existing infrastructure and improve the way millions live and work.

In the Hyperloop system, passengers and cargo are loaded into a pod and accelerated gradually, via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube. The pod quickly lifts above the track using magnetic levitation and glides at airline speeds (620 mph, or 1,000 km/h) for long distances due to ultra-low aerodynamic drag. This week, the company finalised the tube installation of its 500m (1,640 ft) long "DevLoop", located in a desert outside Las Vegas; this facility serves as an outdoor lab for its proprietary levitation, propulsion, vacuum and control technologies.



Looking south from the newly finished tube installation at DevLoop. Credit: Hyperloop One

"The U.S. has always been a global innovation vanguard – driving advancements in computing, communication and media to rail, automobiles and aeronautics," said Shervin Pishevar, executive chairman. "Now, with Hyperloop One, we are on the brink of the first great breakthrough in transportation technology of the 21st century, eliminating the barriers of time and distance and unlocking vast economic opportunities."

"Hyperloop One is the American Dream, and it's fast becoming an American reality," he added.

Proposed routes that would greatly reduce travel times across some of the country's most heavily trafficked regions include Los Angeles-San Diego, Miami-Orlando and Seattle-Portland. The longest distance proposal, Cheyenne-Houston, would run 1,152 miles across four states, reducing to 1 hour and 45 minutes a journey that currently takes 17 hours by car or truck. Hyperloop One's panel of experts includes Peter Diamandis, Executive Chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation. The full list of route proposals being considered is as follows (click to enlarge).

In addition to new details on the U.S. routes, the Washington, D.C. event featured a roundtable of speakers discussing the future of transportation.

"The U.S. is challenged to meet the growing demands on our transportation infrastructure, with congestion costing the economy more than $160 billion per year due to wasted time and fuel," said Tyler Duvall, a partner at McKinsey & Company. "However, new technologies are poised to drive efficiency, increase capacity, and help spur social and economic growth. To seize this opportunity, the approach to infrastructure planning must keep pace by integrating new technologies and taking long-term views of what mobility will look like in the future."

You can vote for your favourite Hyperloop route on Facebook at the following link: https://www.facebook.com/HyperloopOne/app/126231547426086/

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