Helsinki-Stockholm in 30 minutes?
Connected society 11 June 2018
The hyperloop could solve a lot of congestion problems the sustainable way. It is moving ahead in Finland, among other places.
Expert columns
It is no surprise that the concept has been met with some scepticism: sending people through a giant, low-air-pressure tube at over 1,000 km per hour, much faster and in a more climate-friendly way than any commercial aircraft – and at around three times the speed of the Japanese Shinkansen and other modern bullet trains.
However, despite the far out sci-fi aspects, the hyperloop might be coming to a capital near you within the next decade – thus solving a lot of congestion problems.
Last year, Virgin Hyperloop One reported a speed record of 387 km per hour at its full-scale test track in the Mojave Desert of Nevada. This year the company has developed a full-scale pod prototype at the site (pictured).
Dubai, Saudi Arabia and several European countries have also expressed their interest, and KPMG and Ramboll have conducted a pre-feasibility study on the plans to link the Finnish and Swedish capitals with a tube that will cut the journey time for the 500-km trip to less than half an hour.
Our expertise has been in rock engineering; civil engineering; environmental planning for a sub-Baltic sea corridor, a rock tunnel between the two countries; and two land-based corridors, one in Sweden and one in Finland.
The joint conclusions of the study were highly promising, and Ramboll is now exploring a hyperloop test track section that would run from Salo towards Turku in Finland.
The concept
- Hyperloop is a new mode of transport first envisioned by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. It consists of a low-pressure environment in the shape of a tube through which pods travel at high speed.
- Several people have proposed similar ideas, but the term and specific system were first revealed to the public in a white paper published by Tesla and SpaceX in 2013.
- Musk open-sourced the concept, and several startups have since launched efforts to make the concept a reality.
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