Hyperloop Promised to Build the New Silk Road in Russia
Source: RBC, June 22, 2016
(http://www.rbc.ru/business/22/06/2016/576a22c69a79477cd9c44eb8?from=main)
Hyperloop plan in Russia is to build a New Silk Road, Shervin Pishevar, Chairman of the Hyperloop operator, Hyperloop Technologies Inc., announced.
In addition to the high-speed mainline in Moscow region, Hyperloop is planning to build a New Silk Road through Russia to deliver freight from China to Europe, Hyperloop Technologies co-founder Shervin Pishevar said. He noted that these are the company’s plans for long-term cooperation with Russia.
“Hyperloop can improve life dramatically for the 16 million people in the greater Moscow area, cutting their commute to a fraction of what it is today”, Reuters quotes Pishevar.
On June 17 Moscow Government signed a memorandum of cooperation with Hyperloop Technologies Inc., the Hyperloop operator. According to the document, as RBC was reporting earlier, Hyperloop Technologies would “work out the feasibility” of the project allowing passenger transportation between airports in the greater Moscow area or improving transportation with the “newer Moscow” area.
According to the company’s CEO Rob Lloyd, the price of the Hyperloop construction in Moscow is unclear and the train would not necessary be operated at the maximal speed in the Moscow area.
However, the core goal of Hyperloop’s cooperation with Russia is building the New Silk Road, Shervin Pishevar said.
“Our long-term goal is to implement the New Silk Road: a cargo Hyperloop that whisks freight containers from China to Europe in a day”, he noted.
The Hyperloop high-speed mainline is a project proposed by Tesla Motors and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. He proposed building a vacuum mainline as a closed tube, in which the train would move at 480 - 1220 km/h due to no rail friction or air resistance. The project has not been implemented anywhere so far but on May 11 Hyperloop Technologies held the first successful train tests in Nevada. The prototype gained 187 km/h in 1.1 sec.
