Ten years ago, Elon Musk presented a white paper on a new transportation system called hyperloop. It consisted of putting passenger and cargo capsules inside a large low-pressure pipe that could travel at speeds higher than those of commercial airplanes, at more than 1,000 kilometers per hour. The controversial businessman published the project, but did not participate in its development. He offered it as free hardware, so anyone could run it. The first of the companies, and the most significant in terms of investment capital received, was Hyperloop One, which for a time was Virgin Hyperloop One, as Richard Branson got involved, but last week the company announced its closure, something many mistook for the end of this train of the future. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Hyperloop lives on. In October, the Hyperloop Association was founded, made up of seven companies among which there was still the American Hyperloop One, in addition to HyperloopTT, also from the United States and led by the Spaniard Andrés de León as CEO, together with several European companies, among which the Spanish Zeleros stands out.
Hyperloop One received investments for 450 million dollars, but it was always surrounded by controversy. After agreeing with Adif in 2018 to create a research and development center in Andalusia, the US company withdrew two years later and left the proposed facility in Antequera (Málaga) on hold. . In 2016, one of its co-founders, Brogan BamBrogan, left the company after he explained that someone had left a noose with a noose on his office chair and filed a complaint.
In the almost ten years since Musk presented the hyperloop (2014), there have been numerous initiatives to develop these high-speed trains. In addition to the United States, where HyperloopTT now remains, and Canada, with Transpod, Europe seems to be one of the points in the world most interested in the development of the new means of transport.
In April, the European Parliament took a position in favor of incorporating the hyperloop in article 44 of the RTE-T regulation, which marks the development of a trans-European transport network. It is expected that next year the Eurochamber will receive a legislative proposal to regulate the hyperloop. The European interest in having a pioneering regulatory framework as soon as possible is also justified because this technology can be developed in countries such as China, where the regulatory process does not need to pass so many filters.
The European Hyperloop Center that has begun to be installed in Veendam, Groningen (Netherlands) should have a track of 3 to 5 kilometers in length - in November the first 420 meters were completed, installed in only two months – open to technological companies for testing during 2024. The planned investment to complete the center is 200 million euros.
The European Hyperloop Center will begin tests in this first phase at 75 kilometers per hour to test the technology. The length of the pipe does not give for more. The second phase, which will be developed with a pipeline that will already be 2.6 kilometers long, will begin testing passenger and cargo capsules at 700 kilometers per hour. Closer to the final goal and a speed never achieved so far in any of the projects under development.
Europe is very interested in leading this new transport system, because this system could form a large network that would intercommunicate its cities, which are relatively close, in times that would exceed those of the plane with a much lower energy cost and CO2 emissions. Solar panels can be installed along the entire pipeline - in fact, all the projects foresee this - to achieve very low energy costs, up to a tenth depending on the transport system with which it is compared. The City of Rotterdam, for example, has commissioned a study to incorporate this fast train into its metropolitan network.
It is no coincidence that the establishment of the Hyperloop Association was held in Brussels in October. The train of the future, if it passes, will be through Europe.
