Saudi Arabia’s Investment in Virgin Includes Hyperloop
Saudi Arabia’s decision to invest $1 billion with an option for $480 million more into the Virgin Group involves not only its three space companies — Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbit and The Spaceship Company — but also Virgin Hyperloop One. Vision 2030 is Saudi Arabia’s plan to modernize and diversify its economy away from oil. The kingdom plans to connect its cities and those in adjoining countries via a network of hyperloops.
14 responses to “Saudi Arabia’s Investment in Virgin Includes Hyperloop”
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Very cool to see the hyperloop concept about to “get off the ground”.
Trains, the 2nd generation
A feasibility study is being done for one between Cleveland and Chicago, i believe through Boring, they will most likely somewhat follow the rail route at least in destinations. That would be great as Tower City/ Terminal Tower could be used as a commuter hub between hyperloop stations and the building (particularly the food court and mall area) won’t be as depressing.
In the US there’s a Boring Co. Hyperloop project from NYC to DC (permitting), and Loop (shorter range @125-150 mph) from O’Hare to Chicago is a finalist (of 2), a Loop throughout LA (early phase 1 is permitting/digging), a less far along NYC to Chicago Hyperloop proposal, and likely others.
I would not be surprised if the NYC to Chicago stopped in Cleveland, hyperloop doesn’t turn easily and back when trains were a primary mode of transport, Cleveland was a hub in that everyone had a connection through Cleveland, that’s why Terminal Tower was built, the most efficient way to do it is utilize existing commuter rail infrastructure when sharp turns would be needed.
Actually, Cleveland is nice distance between NYC and Chicago. 333 for ord-cle and then 433 for cle-jfk.
As it is, Chi-NYC is one of the world’s busiest routes and it is America’s #1 route. More traffic between these 2 than any other set of cities.
Might add pittsburgh in there, but, to be fair, it does not help it.
Yes and as hyperloop has a harder time turning than high speed trains, some stops will be needed to get a better angle towards the next stop, plus there are other convenient places to go to that having some stops act as hubs isn’t a bad idea,
There’s a reason why there’s a sky scraper built on top of a train terminal in Cleveland, it’s now only for commuters but at one time any train going from NYC to Chicago went through it…
Edit
If you want to predict where hyperloop will go, follow the major rail routes they should give you a good idea
As it happens by hyperloop Cleveland is about 30min from NYC and Chicago which is the concept’s ideal trip length
So can we say that Richard Branson is a follower of alt.space types? He’s the last remaining thread of the space tourism days from the old Space Access crowd with Virgin Galactic, now he’s doing a hyperloop. I wonder if Musk is hitting up the Saudi’s. They’re going to do solar big time, and in combination with a hyperloop they could tie the Arabian Peninsula together with transport infrastructure.
Musk has no need to hit up Saudi Arabia, between solar and battery projects all over the world, Puerto Rico, and continental US, as well as him having a strong brand, there is plenty of demand for his products
I did not mean hit them up for cash, rather to sell product to them.
Political stigmas associated with Saudi Arabia can hurt his image.
There’s image, then there’s dependency by someone with deep pockets. It’s not like the Saudi’s can nationalize extraction of solar panels and batteries out of their ground anytime soon. I’d be angling to make sure the Chinese don’t get all the work.
There is a massive list of serious engineering issues to solve before a vacuum tunnel transportation system is going to be workable. A really huge one is the thermal coefficient of expansion of steel. A vacuum tube hundreds of kilometers long is going to need lots of expansion joints capable of holding a vacuum and cycling through extreme temperature swings. There are lots more, but it’s customary to solve the most serious problems first and select the stickers that are applied to the car last.