Hyperloop connection between Schiphol, Frankfurt investigated

Schiphol teamed up with Delft startup Hardt Hyperloop to investigate the possibility of a Hyperloop connection between the airport and Frankfurt in Germany. They will investigate building an above ground Hyperloop system on roughly the same route currently being used by NS and Deutsche Bahn for the ICE high-speed train, Het Parool reports.

The Hyperloop is a super fast transport system thought up by South African-American entrepreneur Elon Musk. Passenger-carrying pods are shot through vacuum tubes at high speeds with magnetic levitation. Due to the lack of air resistance, the pods can theoretically reach speeds up to a thousand kilometers per hour.

That means that a ride between Schiphol and Frankfurt could take about 50 minutes, instead of the current 4 to 4.5 hours. TNO calculated last year that the construction of 5 kilometers of Hyperloop would cost 20 million euros. That means that, in ideal circumstances, the Schiphol-Frankfurt route will cost around 1.8 billion euros.

Hardt Hyperloop was born from a TU Delft student team that participated in Musk's Hyperloop competition two years ago with great success. It grew into a company that now has 20 employees. Hardt Hyperloop received an European investment of 5 million euros last week, on top of a previous investment of 1.25 million euros and a starting capital, which came partly from NS, of 600 thousand euros. With that money the company built a life-size test setup in Delft last year.

KLM, BAM, and IHC also teamed up with Hardt Hyperloop to work on a Hyperloop system. Tata Steel in IJmuiden is helping with the development of the vacuum tubes.