America's Hyperloop technology, the world's newest and fastest form of mass transportation on land, should come to China within five to 10 years. It will debut at Tongren, one of China's poorest cities, which is located in Guizhou, one of China's poorest provinces.
Hyperloop, whose sealed trains traveling in a vacuum tunnel can reach speeds of 1,223 km/h (760 mph), is coming to Guizhou because of the foresight of the provincial government in signing a deal last July with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) to build a hyperloop track in the province.
That foresight seems to have been rewarded when HTT the other day unveiled its first full-size passenger capsule in Cadiz, Spain. HTT is one of the firms that took on the challenge of realizing Elon Musk's vision for a super-fast urban transport system based on the unproven hyperloop technology.
The company based in Culver City, California predicts it can begin commercial service of the first hyperloop in the United States in three years at the earliest. Expansion outside the U.S. -- including China -- will follow.
HTT CEO Dirk Ahlborn, who signed the contract with the Guizhou government, said during the unveiling in Spain that he hopes to have a full hyperloop system up and running in the U.S. in three years. In three years, you and me, we can take a hyperloop, according to Ahlborn.
Ahlborn said worldwide adoption of hyperloop transport could come in "maybe five to 10" years once a legal framework is in place. He said this timetable is definitely much sooner than anybody expected.
The HTT capsule unveiled in Spain measures 105 feet long and weighs five tons. The capsule will seat from 28 and 40 passengers. The interior of this capsule remains a work in progress.
The provincial government is hopeful the advent of the Hyperloop in Tongren will go a long way to fulfilling its ambition of becoming China's newest tech hub. Already, Guizhou is home to the data-storage home of Apple's iCloud in China. It will soon be the site for the servers of social-media app WeChat.
A plus for Guizhou is that it lies in the path of the Belt and Road Initiative. This piece of good fortune has made Guizhou a magnet for foreign investment. High-speed trains such as HTT's hyperloop system will speed-up the development of the entire province of Guizhou.
Ahlborn said his company envisions that Hyperloop will play a bigger role in the Silk Road Economic Belt.
The deal between Guizhou and HTT requires the latter to build a track for a hyperloop train at Tongren. HTT will establish a 50-50 joint venture with state-owned Tongren Transport, Tourism and Investment Group to fulfill the project.
The Tongren hyperloop project is expected to cost some $1.5 billion. It will consist of two phases.
The first phase will be a 10 kilometer-long route that will connect Tongren's airport to the city. This phase will cost $290 million.
The second phase will be a 50 kilometer-long route connecting the city to Mount Fanjing, a popular tourist destination in the province.
