They Did Something in String Technologies that Hyperloop Couldn't

Dear fellow-thinkers, the comparison of string transport and Hyperloop has been going on almost since the creation of these projects. “World Construction Today” has decided to sum up the interim results of this confrontation by publishing an article on this topic.

“Virgin Hyperloop” has assured that the passenger direction (forevacuum passenger trains that accelerate over 1000 km/h) had to be realized. But not so long ago, the company officially announced that it was abandoning the idea of passenger transportation. As reported by the “Financial Times”, now “Virgin Hyperloop” has switched exclusively to the transportation of goods. It is interesting that the developer of string transport, shortly before that, just realized the passenger direction and announced the start of work on commercial projects.

Projects and facts

For several years, many media outlets have been enthusiastic about the idea of Hyperloop, discussing its possible implementation time and cost. After the publication of the first version of this concept, a lot of discussions broke out among scientists and engineers: some considered the project unviable, even if they managed to get permission from the regulators, others argued that the system was very expensive, the implementation would require billions of dollars, which not every investor would be ready to allocate, others believed that the energy consumption calculations would be much more than the developer indicated. Passenger safety was also questioned due to the risk of depressurization.

Only the successful implementation of the project could judge the disputants. The company intended to launch the first commercial lines by 2020, then postponed their appearance to 2021, however, these plans were not destined to come true: “Virgin Hyperloop” decided to switch from passenger transportation to haulage, while reducing almost half of its employees (111 people). Management explained this decision with "global problems in the supply chain and all the changes due to Covid-19".

According to “World Construction Today”, is it because haulage is also the path of least resistance? The security requirements for this route are, of course, lower, since the carrier does not need to be responsible for the safety of passengers.

String transport has overtaken Hyperloop

At the same time, the company developing string technologies received a certificate of compliance with safety requirements from the international organization TÜV SW last year. And soon after that, it announced the start of work on commercial projects, and Covid-19 did not become an obstacle to this, although it certainly seriously complicated the work. In the difficult conditions caused by the pandemic, the project management did not abandon their plans.

The article is summed up by – one might argue, but a sensational – opinion of journalists that string transport and infrastructure complexes can be called a more viable solution than the possibly overestimated project from Virgin Hyperloop!

You can find more details on this material on the website of the developer of string technologies.

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