The world's first test track for the futuristic Hyperloop transport system that will revolutionize high-speed travel in the U.S. will be built starting 2016.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), one of three U.S. companies competing to build the first operational Hyperlook system, will build the test track for the supersonic train after it reached a deal with California landowners.
HTT signed an agreement with a firm in central California to build a five-mile long Hyperloop test line along Interstate 5. Its deal with the developers of Quay Valley will see construction of the test line starting 2016.
The test line is to be completed by 2019 and could cost some US$100 million to build.
"This is big step," said Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of the JumpStartFund that established HTT in 2014. "It's time to take the Hyperloop from concept and design and build the first one."
The Hyperloop transport system is best described as a tube hurling passenger capsules to their destinations at over 1,000 km/h. Tesla Motors and Space Exploration Technologies founder Elon Musk described the Hyperloop as a "fifth mode of transportation".
Hyperloop is a conceptual high-speed transportation system using reduced-pressure tubes and electromagnetic pulses in which pressurized capsules ride on a cushion of air propelled by a combination of linear induction motors and air compressors.
The conceptual route runs from the Los Angeles region to the San Francisco Bay Area. The expected journey time between both points is 35 minutes.
This means passengers will traverse the 354 mile (570 km) route at an average speed of some 598 mph (962 km/h) with a top speed of 760 mph (1,220 km/h). Once completed, the Hyperloop line could extend for over a thousand miles.
Ahlborn described his company's actions as a phased process. They've completed their feasibility studies and will now test all aspects of the Hyperloop. The company is at least 10 years away from a commercially operating Hyperloop, however.
Hyperloop gained media mileage when it was put forward in 2013 by Musk. In 2014, Musk announced plans to build a Hyperloop test track in Texas after first saying he had no plans of doing so. Musk has agreed to fund the construction of a sub-scale test track in Texas.
A third firm, Hyperloop Technologies of Los Angeles, plans to develop a Hyperloop route between San Francisco and Las Vegas. It has US$8.5 million and is backed by a dream team of investors from Silicon Valley.