Remote Chinese city hopes to board the hyperloop express after signing deal with US firm to try to build 1,220km per hour rail line
Impoverished city signs deal with Californian company that claims it can use vacuum-sealed tunnels to develop superfast maglev line
A crowdsourced US venture, which is pursuing the dream of a superfast underground railway, has signed a deal with a remote Chinese city to develop a test track there in a deal that may help advance China’s ambitions of becoming a world leader in the sector.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, which is trying to turn the hyperloop concept into reality, said on Thursday it would team up with Tongren in the southern province of Guizhou to build a new 10km test track for the high-speed transport system that it claims could reach a speed of 1,220km per hour (760mph).
The California-based enterprise is one of several ventures trying to develop a new type of transport system propelling capsules through vacuum-sealed tunnels, a concept popularised by Elon Musk, the Tesla boss.
HyperloopTT has struck similar deals with several other countries and the construction of its first capsules under way at its innovation centre in France.
The remote city of Tongren in China’s impoverished Guizhou province will host the latest demonstration project, according to the plans published by the company and China’s state media.
The project is designed to use magnetic levitation, or maglev, rail lines – a technology already in use on two lines in Shanghai and Changsha, which have a top speed of 430km per hour.
But hyperloop advocate believes it will be possible to achieve much speeds of over 1,000km per hour – faster than many passenger aircraft – by operating in a vacuum to reduce friction.
