A transportation system that fires people through tubes at 800 mph in special pods may sound like something from a science fiction movie, but the first steps in its construction have taken place.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has struck a deal with California landowners to build a test track for the high-speed train first proposed by Elon Musk in 2013.
Details of the proposed test track were first reported by Tech Times earlier this year, but according to a Navigant Research blog post, a concrete deal has been struck and construction of the test track will begin as soon as 2016.
The idea was first floated in a 57-page paper published by Elon Musk in 2013. He proposed transporting passengers from L.A. to San Francisco in just 30 minutes by firing them through tubes in specialized pods at 800 mph using a combination of magnets and fans.
In his paper, the co-founder of PayPal encouraged anyone to take up the mantle of building the system, and indeed, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is a private company with no affiliation to Musk.
The innovative entrepreneur has been busy building electric cars and batteries with Tesla and overseeing space travel with SpaceX in the last few years, although Musk had also announced plans to build a test track in Texas in January.
The five-mile track will be built in central California near the busy Interstate 5 highway, which moves traffic between L.A. and San Francisco. The Navigant Research blog post doesn't have too much new information on the proposed track.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) is expected to raise the $100 million required for construction of the test track at the company's IPO later this year, and building is scheduled to start in 2016.
The pods in the test track will only be able to reach maximum speeds of 200 mph as at least 100 miles of track would be required to accelerate the capsules to 800 mph. According to Navigant Research, at current prices, the estimated cost of the full 400-mile track between California's two largest cities is $8 billion. This would be a rock-bottom price for such a transport system, given that there is no existing infrastructure for the Hyperloop. However, this estimate doesn't take development costs into account, and in reality, costs would likely be multiples of this figure.
Still, it's an encouraging first step that testing will actually begin. If HTT can prove that humans can be transported safely at such speeds, it could provoke others, including governments, to invest in making Musk's plans a reality.
