Often called a real Tony Stark of the 21-st century, Elon Musk started his way with a popular PayPal service and nowadays regularly astonishes people with popularizing electrocars and even launching them into space. One of his latest highly-advanced transportation projects, Hyperloop, may appear in Ukraine.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) and the rival company Hyperloop One announced they have signed agreements with regional planning authorities in Ohio and Illinois to fund a feasibility study for what could be the first US interstate Hyperloop route.
The China Aerospace Science and Industrial Corporation (CASIC), a well-heeled newcomer to the mass transit industry, is betting big on its supersonic T-Flight 'flying train'. If created as proposed, T-Flight will be faster, with more extensive routes.
The Hyperloop Poland team adapted its route from a 2012 feasibility study for an $8 billion high-speed rail project that was suspended by the federal government in 2014. That bullet train’s speed-to-cost ratio was deemed “dissatisfying,” but Hyperloop offers speeds 2-3 times faster than high-speed rail and can be built for two-thirds of the cost while fitting into narrower rights of way that trains cannot.
Romanian engineering student Denis Tudor, 23, is among the winners of Hyperloop competition, which aims to find a transportation alternative for the future. Billionaire Elon Musk, CEO and founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla Motors, initiated the competition.
On Wednesday, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies signed an "exploratory agreement" with the Czech city of Brno, which wants to examine the feasibility of a hyperloop line to Bratislava, Slovakia, where HTT also is working with the government. Being fired through a tube will cut the 80-mile trip, which takes 90 minutes by rail, to 10 minutes.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies announced Thursday that it has signed an agreement with the government of the Slovak Republic to "explore" building a hyperloop system that connects Bratislava with Vienna, Austria and Budapest, Hungary.