Cities Fighting To Be On Hyperloop List, Las Vegas Tests To Start This Year

The Hyperloop is one of the next generation of transport concepts that are currently electrifying the world, including hypersonic air travel and even commercial space flights. Elon Musk’s vision for the Hyperloop One project has been screening potential test sites and cities have been trying to claw their way to the top of the list. If all goes well, the first tests could be done in a matter of months.

Over 2,600 teams were in the running when the first phase of the Hyperloop One Grand Challenge was started, and now only 35 remain, Phys.org reports. The contestants were made up of local government units, vying for the chance to be able to oversee, regulate, and host a Hyperloop test in their own cities. Among those that remain include Sydney, Shanghai, Mumbai, and London.

It would appear that there is also a chance for the U.S. to have a prominent role in the creation and implementation of this revolutionary mode travel, but only of talks pull through. If not, it will be other nations that will get to have front row seats as Hyperloop One makes hypersonic land travel a reality.

In the case of Sydney, for example, travel between the metropolis and its neighbor in Melbourne will take roughly 55 minutes. That’s a 1,200km distance traversed by a train traveling in a long series of tubes at speeds of over 700mph, the Daily Mail reports.

However, it would seem that tests in those regions won’t take effect for quite a while. On the other hand, project co-founder Josh Giegel said that he and his team will be going ahead with the first round of practical tests in Las Vegas, Digital Trend reports.

Construction of the tubes is already ongoing, with several hundred meters laid down. By 2020, the people behind the project hopes to have a fully-functional series of rails for freight trains. After that, it’s commercial travel.