Imagine slipping into a sleek capsule at a train-like station in Pueblo and arriving in Denver 11 minutes later, regardless of the weather.
That’s the vision that drives Swisspod Technologies as it works to complete a one-mile, full-scale hyperloop test track on the grounds of the former Pueblo Army Depot in southeastern Colorado.
In November, Swisspod unveiled 25 steel tubes atop concrete pillars stretching across 218 yards of prairie. You could look through the tunnel-like structure from one end to another. Seemingly, pretty basic stuff.
But they are the first pieces of an elliptical test track for an intriguing, futuristic mode of high-speed transportation in which capsules carrying cargo or people would levitate through vacuum tubes.
“As fast as a plane and as convenient as a train,” Swisspod CEO Denis Tudor said as onlookers peered at or clambered into the empty tubes.
While enthusiasm for hyperloop technology fueled a decade ago by design competitions sponsored by Elon Musk and Space X has cooled significantly, Tudor and his company are unabashedly forging ahead. He expects to begin testing at the Pueblo track in late 2025.
The 43-acre hyperloop testing facility is part of another dream too: the conversion of the former Pueblo Depot into a sprawling complex of businesses and industry to provide jobs in Pueblo County.
“Swisspod’s hyperloop test track falls right into our research and development plans,” said Chris Bolt, vice president and chief operating officer for PuebloPlex, the redevelopment authority for the former Army post.
Swisspod’s vision
Tudor was 25 years old when he began working on hyperloop technology in 2015. A student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), he co-founded the rLoop and EPFLoop teams that competed in the Space X Hyperloop Pod competitions that ran from 2015 to 2019.
The teams won awards for best design (2016), best innovation (2017), best engineering (2018), and third place for speed (2018). The EPFLoop team also took third place overall in 2018 and 2019.
The competitions ended but in 2019 Tudor and fellow engineer Cyril Dénéréaz incorporated Swisspod Technologies with the goal of making hyperloop transportation a reality.
Two years later they were building a one-quarter scale test loop in Lausanne in cooperation with EPFL and the School of Engineering and Management Vaud, a branch of the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland.
That same year, Swisspod announced a partnership with Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (now MxV Rail) to build the full-scale test track at the PuebloPlex. The first steel tubes were installed in October 2023.
Meanwhile, various tests began at the Lausanne track in 2022, and the capsule prototype was completed in 2023.
In June 2024, it completed the longest-ever hyperloop test trial, sending its autonomous capsule 11.8 kilometers (about 7 miles) along the test track in Lausanne. The capsule reached speeds of about 25 mph.
A key difference between Swisspod’s effort and other hyperloop developers is that the infrastructure is cheaper to build because nearly all of the electrification and controls are in the pods rather than the track, Tudor explained at the Pueblo track unveiling.
He estimated that a fully electrified rail system costs about $100 million per mile, whereas the Swisspod concept would cost $12 million to $15 million per mile. The rail itself would contain only vacuum pumps and some sensors; the rest of the controls will be on the pod, which can be manufactured as needed.
“We took the electrification off the rail — which is where the cost of high-speed rail is — and put it on the pod,” said Sotiris Pagdadis, a Swisspod board member and director who spoke at the Pueblo event.
He and other investors and board members touted the moxie of the engineering team that is working to transform transportation.
“Four years ago a bunch of crazy scientists and engineers had the vision to set up two test sites,” Pagdadis said.
“They had the audacity to believe they could do something that hadn’t been done.”
Andy Jesik, head of infrastructure for the company at PuebloPlex, said nearly everything at the test track is built in Colorado. The large steel tubes are built in Denver by H&L Pipe and Steel, for example.
The test track is elevated atop concrete columns, but the track could also be underground, he said. Either way, the system is immune to weather conditions for operations.
While the land where the test track is being constructed east of Pueblo is wide open and weather for construction is generally good, Jesik noted that building on a former Army facility came with some hazards.
“When we started soil testing we had to watch a video on unexploded ordnance,” he said with a chuckle. “That’s when I knew this was going to be an interesting project.”
But so far one of the biggest challenges has been getting the rails into the tube and aligning them, he said.
When completed, the mile-long track will be the largest hyperloop test track in the world and the second-large vacuum chamber in the United States, Swisspod head of marketing Madalina Stoicescu said in an email.
Hyperloop activity wanes
Elsewhere, there is less enthusiasm for the so-called fifth mode of transportation (after cars, trains, planes and boats), especially since the ballyhooed Hyperloop One shut down a year ago.
Started in 2013 as Hyperloop Technologies by Silicon Valley investor Shervin Pishevar, the company underwent numerous transformations and name changes as its engineers developed technology. It became Virgin Hyperloop after entering into a partnership with Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, then reverted back to Hyperloop One in 2022 after Branson pulled his company out of the endeavor, according to the BBC.
The company shifted its focus to cargo instead of people and investment dwindled. It also endured scandal, with directors accused of embezzlement and sexual misconduct, the BBC reported.
It shut down completely in December 2023.
Other startups around the world continue to pursue the technology, and India and China are particularly interested. Swisspod has a memorandum of understanding to operate in India and to collaborate with TuTr Hyperloop at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Stoicescu said.
In September, Hardt Hyperloop announced that it has successfully tested a levitation vehicle at its European Hyperloop Center in the Netherlands, The Associated Press reported.
Tudor noted that the technologies being pursued could have multiple applications, including in space exploration and high-speed rail, and the concepts have been around for a long time.
Although there has been some government interest — and investment — many, including in Colorado, are waiting for hyperloop to further develop. Colorado Department of Transportation Director Shoshana Lew said at a 2019 conference that CDOT was focused on available technologies.
“We are excited to see any new technology being researched, but for our projects that are on the horizon for the near term, such as mountain rail from Denver to Craig, we are envisioning the use of available technologies,” CDOT spokesperson Tim Hoover said this month.
Southern Colorado connection
Officials in southern Colorado are a bit more excited about hyperloop and the test track under construction at PuebloPlex.
Pueblo Mayor Heather Graham attended the unveiling of the first sections of the test track and said it will bring attention to the city and the developing PuebloPlex.
It’s exciting to see “the reuse of the chemical depot site in a new way,” she said.
Bolt, the COO of PuebloPlex, said it is great to have cutting-edge technology companies as a part of the complex.
The first 5,000 acres of PuebloPlex was transferred in July from the Army to the redevelopment authority. Eventually, the full 23,000 acres of the depot, which in its history stored and maintained missiles and other ordnance, including 780,000 mustard agent-filled munitions, will be available for redevelopment.
PuebloPlex is working with the Army and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment on the ongoing cleanup of the grounds as it recruits businesses to locate there.
MxV rail moved its railroad research and development operations in 2022 from the federal Transportation Technology Center just north of PuebloPlex. MxV is a subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads.
The company spent $60 million over three years to repurpose facilities and build test tracks at PuebloPlex, MvX CEO and President Kari Gonzales, a Pueblo native, said. The company has about 250 employees, mostly in southern Colorado.
It is the anchor tenant at PuebloPlex and has classrooms and meeting space, along with a cafeteria. MxV offers courses on such things as alternative fuels and for first responders who might be called to a derailment or fire.
PuebloPlex also is home to manufacturer Cooper and Turner, which makes anchor bolt assemblies for wind turbine foundations.
And all of the secure igloos that once housed chemical weapons are leased for storage of such valuables as classic cars and artwork, Bolt said.
He noted that PuebloPlex is “just getting started” and he’s excited to see what it will become.
“We evaluate each prospect as they contact us and do our due diligence,” he said. “We’re open to talk to any prospect and then determine if they’re a good fit. There’s a lot of opportunity out here so we want to make sure we see the big picture for years to come.”
