It is reported that the Shanghai-Hangzhou route won the project competition for the construction of China’s first hyperloop line. It will be a 150 km track in a low pressure pipe. The train in it will move at speeds up to 1000 km/h. It will take 15 minutes to travel between stations, while now a high-speed train travels this distance in an hour. But this transport miracle will appear only in 12 years.
experimental capsule. Image Source: China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation
China does not yet have the completed technology to create a “hyperloop” – a transport system in low-pressure pipes using superconducting magnets and levitation in a magnetic field. But the country is already in full swing testing such platforms. According to experts, if China in 15 years was able to build such an extensive network of high-speed railway lines that they could circumnavigate the Earth in length, then the “hyperloop” will also be conquered in a reasonable time.
Pairs of China’s largest metropolitan areas, including Beijing-Shijiazhuang, Guangzhou-Shenzhen and Chengdu-Chongqing, fought for the right to be the first to receive a revolutionary highway. After a feasibility study for the project, experts chose a line between Hangzhou and Shanghai. The paper states that this choice was made due to the relatively flat terrain, which guarantees good technical feasibility. Such a project would also have a positive social impact, promoting regional integration between Shanghai and Hangzhou. The line will have great economic potential due to high population density and strong economic activity in both cities.
The idea of a “hyperloop” was introduced into the media space in 2013 by Elon Mask and even founded the Boring Company for this purpose. Later, other companies of a similar nature were founded, including the Hyperloop One project of Richard Branson (Richard Branson). Today they are all quiet and in limbo. Chinese engineers took seriously the idea of transport in a “vacuum” pipe and, as we see, continue to move towards the goal.
Future transport project
The launch of the hyperloop line between Shanghai and Hangzhou is expected by 2035. On the one hand, it’s not very soon. However, today there is simply no mass of technologies for the implementation of such a project, and colossal scientific work remains to be done before starting construction, which in itself will be very, very difficult and extremely expensive.
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