The longest tunnel in Europe to test hyperloop technology has been inaugurated in the Netherlands: it is located in a disused railway center near Veendam and measures 420 meters but the future goal is to connect Amsterdam to Barcelona in a couple of hours. The short tunnel built by the European Hyperllop Center is the first to have tested an exchange on the tracks, an important step for the creation of real connection networks thousands of kilometers long by 2050. “If we look at how the networks have developed of highways we observe that they grew exponentially only when the technologies were ready,” said Sascha Lamme, director of the Hyperloop Center.
“We have now built something that is very scalable, that can go very quickly. Now – added Lamme – it would really be possible to enter a station in Amsterdam and travel to a city like Barcelona in a couple of hours. Just like you do with a plane but without all the hassles of the plane.” The new tunnel completed in the Netherlands aims to test vehicles, including the exchange, and will also open the doors to other companies interested in developing technologies related to hyperloop, a new method of transportation launched in 2013 by Tesla’s Elon Musk but which did not live up to initial expectations.
Richard Branson, with Virgin Hyperloop, had also tried to follow the idea but after the first tests with 2 passengers in 2020 he then closed the project. At the basis of hyperloop is the idea of making trains travel inside vacuum tunnels so as to eliminate air resistance and be able to travel at almost 1000 kilometers per hour without encountering resistance. A technology that continues to be developed in China and Europe, precisely by the European Hyperllop Center which hopes – despite the many difficulties – to launch the first connections of a few kilometers, for example between cities and airports, by 2030.
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