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.