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Does Hyperloop perish? – The New York Times


This article is part of our series on The Future of Transportationis exploring the innovations and challenges that affect the way we move in the world.

It’s been a transportation dream for more than 150 years: In the 1870s, an experimental system used a pneumatic vacuum tube to propel people down Manhattan from Warren Street to Murray Street.

By the 2010s, a new version and many improvements of vacuum tube technology called hyperloop promises to transport people not just a few blocks, but between cities at speeds comparable to air travel, moving passenger pods by magnetic at speeds of more than 600 miles per hour.

However, while companies have raised hundreds of millions of dollars to design and build hyperloop systems – with projects in India, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and the United States – the technology is still not working. is an aspiration.

The concept was promoted in November 2020, when Virgin Hyperloop (then known as Hyperloop One) Be the first company to move people use technology. In the hyperloop test facility outside Las Vegas, two employees traveled in a full-scale vacuum tube at 107 mph on a 500-meter (about 1,640-foot) test track. Company executives said at the time that, while far from the promise of 600 mph, the test proved that the system could work.

“This is the first new form of mass shipping in over 100 years,” said Jay Walder, the company’s chief executive officer at the time. The test passengers “are real people. This test shows that we have a culture of safety.”

However, just a year later, the company withdrew and scaled back its ambitions. Walder departs in February 2021; Josh Giegel, who succeeded him as the company’s chief executive and co-founder, followed suit last October. And in January, Virgin Hyperloop lay off half of its employees (over 100 employees), stopped development of the certification center in West Virginia, halted route development in India, and shifted focus to freight. (Virgin Hyperloop did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

The company’s downsizing and shifting focus is symbolic of the difficulties facing the hyperloop industry, transportation analysts say.

“Many times you see technological innovations that attract a lot of investment and you can make a lot of money in the cycle,” said Juan Matute, associate director of the Transportation Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. period of exaggeration. However, this technology does not foresee the significant technical challenges involved in creating an entirely new infrastructure. “After that, interest rates will gradually decrease,” Mr. Matute said.

While such challenges may eventually be resolved, some industry observers believe that regulatory, financial and political barriers could destroy hyperloop as a high-speed alternative. feasible for air travel.

Central obstacle: While new modes of transport such as electric vehicles can easily be integrated into existing road systems, a hyperloop system will require the creation of an entire infrastructure. That means building mile-long pipelines and stations, acquiring road access rights, complying with government regulations and standards, and avoiding changes to the ecosystem along the lines. its path.

Several hyperloop companies continue to work on creating viable systems. In some cases, the Covid pandemic has slowed progress as governments turn to more pressing issues. A spokesperson for DP World, a global supply chain logistics company and majority owner of Virgin Hyperloop, said that’s why Virgin Hyperloop has stopped its India project.

Stopping the project is “more a political and legal issue. Daniel Van Otterdijk, DP World’s communications director, says they have had a change in priorities.

TransPod, based in Toronto, had planned to build a half-scale hyperloop test track in Limoges, France in 2019, but that has been delayed; Sebastien Gendron, the company’s chief executive officer and co-founder, said. “The plan is to make it three kilometers long,” he said, “but it could be shorter.”

The company is also planning to build an on-ground system connecting the Calgary and Edmonton airports. Its first phase will be a test track running five kilometers, about three miles, from Edmonton. The company expects completion in 2025, followed by a two-year certification process that will allow construction to begin in Calgary in 2027.

The company envisioned a system that would transport goods and eventually people. “Not having a system for passengers would be stupid,” Gendron said. However, he admits that funding continues to be a major obstacle.

“Our biggest challenge is access to capital,” said Mr. Gendron. The company needed $550 million to build and $300 million to run the company. Government buying is also an obstacle. “Our world is risk-averse,” he said.

Hyperloop TTbased in Los Angeles, recently accelerated work on building the system in the United Arab Emirates, but has moved on to other projects, said Andrés De León, its chief executive.

The US project furthest in development is planned for the Great Lakes region, where the company is seeking private funding to undertake an environmental study for two years before attempting to build the route.

The company also hopes to be given the power to plan the system between the Italian cities of Venice and Padua. If the contract is awarded, they will first build a test track worth 800 million euros (approximately in US dollars) 10 kilometers, about six miles, in three years; but construction on it will not begin until the completion of the two-year feasibility study.

“We need to develop a system for transporting passengers, light goods and containers in parallel,” said Mr. De León. “We see a huge opportunity in freight transport, as the cost of air freight is 10 times higher than hyperloop.”

Indeed, a viable passenger-only system would cost significantly more than a cargo-focused system. For those on board, the curve will have to be less angular to avoid discomfort and safety will be paramount, to ensure that vandalism or system failure in the ducts does not cause a condition. depressurization or severe hypoxia for those people. traveling.

“Getting the hyperloop working for humans is a really big hurdle,” said Hugh Hunt, professor of engineering dynamics and vibrations at the University of Cambridge. “Sending a man to the moon costs 10 times more than sending an unmanned spacecraft.”

Others disagree on the merits of creating a freight system using hyperloop technology. Mr Walder, who has headed the MTA in New York and the Department for Transport in London, said Virgin Hyperloop’s decision not to insist on developing a passenger system instead of cargo was a strategic mistake.

“Can we create a passenger hyperloop system in 10 years? Probably not,” he said. “But creating a freight system is not a must. The benefits are much more limited.”

Others see a hyperloop system designed solely for transporting goods as a solution to a problem.

Carlo van de Weijer, director of the intelligent mobility department at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, said: “I don’t know of any case where goods have been rushed. “Most of the goods that take two and a half weeks come from China. Why do you suddenly need to move it somewhere in 10 minutes? We are perfectly satisfied with a truck going 50 miles per hour. “

But Virgin Hyperloop believes a move to a cargo-first strategy makes sense, especially if it can connect shipping hubs. “The ports are severely congested, and that will continue to get worse; we need a different system,” said Mr. Van Otterdijk. “By the end of this decade, we will have a commercialized hyperloop system somewhere in the world.”

Even if hyperloop systems could charge passengers less than they would if they were on a plane, UCLA’s Matute doesn’t expect the aviation industry to stand still. “A private jet company could price their travel lower to compete with the hyperloop,” he said.

Mr. Van de Weijer believes that the “huge” infrastructure costs associated with the hyperloop – including the construction of tubes, tunnels and piers – do not justify it.

“If you build two kilometers of track, you can go two kilometers,” he said. “If you build two kilometers of runways for airplanes, you can go around the world.” Instead of creating a whole new system, he said, industry insiders should improve existing high-speed transport.

“Ultimately we will have sustainable fuel for aircraft,” he added. “To say we should build a hyperloop is like saying that since streaming on Netflix uses so much power, we should invest in a VCR. We should make streaming more efficient.”

However, whether or not the hyperloop succeeds, the effort to perfect such a system could be well worth the effort.

“There’s a lot of good in pursuing hyperloop, and even if it’s not the answer, it generates a lot of ideas and allows people to think clearly,” said Professor Hunt of the University of Cambridge. .

Mr. Van de Weijer agrees – with one important caveat.

“Hyperloop is a really cool project for students,” he said. “You’re training good engineers by doing this.” However, he added: “Hyperloop doesn’t solve a major problem that would justify that. While small test tracks can be built, no hyperloop system will be built to transport goods or passengers – otherwise I would eat a tractor.”



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