“Dubai to Abu Dhabi in 12 minutes” is the famous unofficial tagline of the country’s ambitious Hyperloop system. Now, detractors aside, it’s set to become a reality.
The UAE’s ambitious hyperloop plans have been well documented here on Esquire, and we’ve always been huge fans of the project. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies chairman has now said that the ‘far-fetched dream’ will become reality for the UAE in 2020.
Bibop Gresta, chairman of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, told state news agency WAM that Abu Dhabi’s Hyperloop capsule has left the assembly facility in Spain and has been taken to Toulouse, France, where it will be tested.
The first phase of the project involves construction of 10km out of a 150km system between Abu Dhabi and Dubai and is set to be ready next year.
In April 2018, HyperloopTT signed a memorandum of understanding with Aldar Properties, which, when executed, will allow for the creation of a new Hyperloop TT centre including, a full scale commercial Hyperloop system, an Hyperloop R&D centre, a demonstration and visitor centre and an innovation hub.
“It was a far-fetched dream, but we are all excited now that it’s a dream coming true in the UAE in 2020,” Gresta told WAM.
The cutting-edge technology uses electro-magnetic levitation engineering to carry pods at 1,123 km/hr and is expected to reduce travel times between UAE cities to minutes.
Still don’t know what a hyperloop is? The HyperLoop One is a mode of transport that will allow passengers and cargo to be loaded into a pod; which will then accelerate gradually via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube. The pod lifts above the track using magnetic levitation and glides at airline speeds for long distances due to ultra-low aerodynamic drag.
