Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Begins Construction Process of First Full-Scale Passenger System

Transportation that moves at 760 miles per hour.

Using magnets, the Hyperloop would transport passengers at just below the speed of sound, which would allow travel between the two cities in as little as 30 minutes.

The track will be built along Interstate 5 around Quay Valley, California. Several have conducted trials, and one company has begun the process of constructing an actual section of the Hyperloop.

"After over two and a half years of research and development, our team has reached another important milestone".

"This will be the world's first passenger-ready Hyperloop system", HTT CEO Dirk Ahlborn said Thursday, in a statement announcing the construction plans.

Image courtesy of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies

According to a press release today, the company will start "on-site" preparations in the next few weeks, which include taking soil samples, mapping out the terrain and determining pylon positions ahead of a full building permit. In a previous life, he talked about video games. With the US sorely lacking in high-speed ground transportation, the promise of a functional Hyperloop carries with it the possibility of leap-frogging the high-speed rail technologies now in use in Europe and Asia and moving directly to futuristic pod travel. It is expected to be completed sometime in 2018.

Though Mr. Musk decided not to commercialize the Hyperloop, instead he has challenged other private companies to do so. Hyperloop Transportation is a world-wide "movement" of 450 engineers, scientist, anti-terrorism experts, and others who banded together on a crowdsourcing website.

HTT is instead focused on a smaller-scale project right now. There is no railway that is profitable without government subsidies if you take everything into consideration. However, his aerospace company, SpaceX, will build a one-mile test track near its Hawthorne, Calif., headquarters.

As reported, Hyperloop Technologies offered CNNMoney's Laurie Segall a Hyperloop passenger ticket for the year 2021, which shows their confidence.

Next week's contest will see five companies including Arx Pax showing off their pods as well as thousands of high school and college students' designs that will compete for a $50,000 prize supplied by SpaceX.

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