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Development and implementation of hyperloop and all connected activities, such as building the business case, project development of routes, technical management, standardization, developing the safety case, building social adoption, building the ecosystem, etc.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Daniel Mes (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans), Diederik Samsom (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans) and

3 Mar 2022 · Prospects of hyperloop in Europe

Meeting with Daniel Mes (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans), Diederik Samsom (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans)

4 Jun 2021 · Hyperloop technologies

Response to European Partnership for transforming Europe’s rail system

27 Aug 2019

The purpose of this European Partnership is to address the competitiveness and attractiveness of rail, as it is an important modality for combating climate change. Rail has clear benefits in comparison to cars and planes in certain niches, but there are also niches where conventional rail is inherently unable to compete, such as for high-speed connections on distances of over 700-1000 km, where aviation dominates the market. A recent study on the impact of tourism on climate change has modelled the effects of different policies, technologies and investments into conventional rail to assess the attainability the Paris climate goals (https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:615ac06e-d389-4c6c-810e-7a4ab5818e8d). The conclusion is that even with an investment of €200B into high-speed rail every year, this would not put aviation on a sustainable pathway without policy that would lead to a substantial reduction in aviation demand. ATAG, the Air Transport Action Group writes: "Around 80% of aviation CO2 emissions are emitted from flights of over 1,500 kilometres, for which there is no practical alternative mode of transport." (https://www.atag.org/facts-figures.html) This indicates that high-speed rail would never make a substantial difference in the decarbonization of aviation, as it is simply unable to compete on speed on those distances. The aforementioned study also concludes that none of the anticipated innovations in aviation or e-fuels would be able to decarbonize this industry sufficiently. The rising unaccommodated demand and the transition of the aviation sector to achieve the 2050 decarbonization goals require a broad range of options to be explored. One of which is the hyperloop, which transports people and goods in vehicles through a low-pressure tube at distances of 50 to 2500 km, at speeds of 500-1000 km per hour and with a capacity of over 20.000 passengers per hour per direction. The hyperloop has the potential to offer an alternative to flights within Europe as it is able to compete on speed, the infrastructure pays for itself with competitive ticket pricing assuming current demand and anticipated growth and it has sufficient capacity to meet this demand. Further, hyperloop has a low energy consumption due to the low-pressure environment, and if powered by sustainable means, it has the potential for emission-free transport. Recently, Europe's first hyperloop test facility was revealed, which was also attended by Eurocommissioner Violeta Bulc and Dutch transport minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen. The recap of the event gives a good overview of the status and the roadmap towards the realization of the hyperloop (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-yQxk6EApM&t). Not only are member states and the European Commission supportive, some of the most important stakeholders such as the European rail companies (NS, DB, SNCF, ÖBB, RFI) are also supportive as indicated by their participation during the "Rail meets Hyperloop" event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWKid8_eFaw&t=132. Rail and hyperloop are similar in many regards, and the realization of hyperloop will involve many of the same stakeholders that are relevant for rail. Both are guided transport systems that (will) offer tremendous benefits to society when compared to other modalities, and they deal with the same challenges in terms of interoperability and intermodality. Since the required investments into guided transport systems such as rail and hyperloop are so large, rail and hyperloop need to be integrated into an overall vision to make sure that the investments we are planning and making now are also the right ones in a future context where hyperloop is a reality. Due to the similarities and the overlap in stakeholders, it makes sense to broaden the definition of rail and also incorporate hyperloop into this European Partnership for an integrated solution to address the competitiveness and attractiveness of the sector and combat climate change.
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