Twelve years of research, but still no operational line in sight: the hyperloop, the concept of a very fast magnetic levitation train launched by Elon Musk, is struggling to come to fruition, even if several companies are still working on the subject.
This futuristic means of transport consists of circulating pressurized capsules, held in the air by magnets, in a low-pressure tube, at a speed which could reach 1200 km/h.
Taking up an old idea, the concept was dusted off in 2012 by billionaire Elon Musk, who did not directly launch into the adventure but encouraged start-ups to realize his dream.
“The hyperloop went through a very familiar technological cycle where there was a lot of excitement” around this mode of transportation, analyzes Rick Geddes, an infrastructure policy expert at Cornell University, in the state of New York. “But it turned out to be more difficult to deploy than we thought. »
Latest twist to date: Hyperloop One recently went out of business, according to the Bloomberg agency. This very active company has disappeared from radar. Its management and its main shareholder did not respond to requests from AFP.
Financed for a time by Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin group, Hyperloop One had, among other things, carried out tests in the Nevada desert at 387 km/h. In November 2020, it carried passengers for the first time, reaching only 172 km/h.
More discreet, the Canadian TransPod has also been working for several years on a 300 km passenger and light freight line between Calgary and Edmonton, in western Canada.
A project valued at nearly 18 billion US dollars that Sébastien Gendron, co-founder and CEO of TransPod, hopes to see opened “before 2035”.
The company has already succeeded in raising $550 million from the British fund Broughton Capital Group to develop an initial 7 km section aimed at “certifying the technology”.
But despite fundraising, agreements in principle, feasibility studies or the development of prototypes, the situation seems to be stagnating for the various companies carrying out the project, and experts remain skeptical.
Hangover
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HyperloopTT), another Californian company interested in the concept, was to create a test track on a former military base near Toulouse with the blessing of local authorities. She left discreetly.
TransPod has meanwhile been criticized for its delay in building a center in Droux, France. The building permit was approved in 2018 and the first “high-speed tests” were initially planned for 2020, the company indicates on its website.
To date, work has barely started, but the company hopes to be able to make announcements as early as January.
“It’s a bit of a rude awakening that is happening,” comments Julien Joly, transport specialist at the consultancy firm Wavestone. “In recent years, we believed in this technology. Today is a bit of a hangover! »
According to him, companies must face numerous “technological obstacles”, but also security issues.
According to Sébastien Gendron, the hyperloop presents an initial difficulty, that of financing. “Despite everything we hear from governments and in the press, financing disruptive innovation remains very difficult,” he confides.
Not everyone has thrown in the towel and countries are still showing “signs of interest” in this technology, particularly in the Middle East, underlines the CEO of TransPod.
India should thus have the “first Hyperloop demonstrator” in Asia at the end of the first quarter, in Thaiyur near Madras in the far east of the country, according to an announcement on Wednesday from steelmaker ArcelorMittal.
In 2023, seven companies came together as an association to “advance the emerging hyperloop industry toward commercialization.” The objective being to “standardize” and “uniform” requests to the European Union, explains Sébastien Gendron.
“I still have hope” but “I think that the development of the hyperloop will happen very slowly and in small steps,” believes Rick Geddes. “It will be years before we have a viable road. »