Imagine reaching your destination in a train faster than you would in a commercial aircraft! Sound like science fiction, right? Well, this sci-fi dream may soon be a reality as the Indian Railways is already gearing up for a test run of the bleeding-edge Hyperloop train set to run on India’s first 410-km long Hyperloop track.
Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently shared a video of India’s first Hyperloop track, announcing that the 410-km long track ready for a test run. “Bharat’s first Hyperloop test track (410 meters) completed,” he wrote while sharing a video of the test track.
A Hyperloop train is high-speed transportation system for both passengers and freight. A hyperloop train runs on a pod with the help of magnetic technology, where an elevated transparent tube is laid, inside which the bogey can run at high speed. The frictionless motion of the tube enables it to reach speeds of up to 1200 km per hour, though the maximum speed of the Indian Railways’ Hyperloop system will be 600 km/hr.
The unprecedented speed of the Hyperloop will cut travel times by orders of magnitude, covering distances between cities in mere minutes, not hours. The Hyperloop will be faster than bullet trains, and its estimated that it will be able to cover the distance between Pune and Mumbai cities in Maharashtra in a mere 25 minutes.
According to reports, the first Hyperloop train will run between Mumbai and Pune and will initially have and operational speed of 360 km per hour. Regular trains take around 3-4 hours to travel between the two cities, but the Hyperloop will cover the distance in just 25 minutes, which is much faster than even air travel.
Though Hyperloop trains will be faster than air travel in the future, its being speculated that their tickets may end up costing equal to if not more than airfare.
However, the experience will be smoother than air travel as Hyperloop track offers the pleasure of a nonstop journey. There will be no stops before the Hyperloop reaches its destination. A single pod will be able to transport around 24-28 in a single run.
The Hyperloop concept was first introduced by Elon Musk in 2013 when he talked about building such a system to transport people from Los Angeles to San Francisco in super fast time.