When the HS2 project got its start in 2009, its vital statistics were measured in miles per hour. If we’re going to build new rail links from south to north, the argument went, then they might as well be high speed rail links. A train travelling at 225 mph? How thrillingly modern!
Of late, however, HS2’s headline stats aren’t in miles per hour, but billions of pounds. An initial price tag of £32 billion for the whole project ballooned into an official budget of £56 billion – with the BBC now reporting that a further £30 billion might be needed on top of that. Pessimists fear the final cost could break the £100 billion barrier.
Will Boris Johnson have the guts to pull the plug? Early indications suggest that he might have given way to the usual umming-and-ahhing. But with anything approaching a twelve figure number, you have to ask what we could have had instead.
For instance, how about a hyperloop?
A hyperloop is a maglev train that floats inside a tube-enclosed track from which most of the air is sucked out. By drastically reducing air resistance the train is able to achieve extraordinary speeds – something like 700 mph, three times the speed of ‘high speed’ rail.
Does it work in practice though? Elon Musk (who else?) has been developing the technology, and encouraging other companies to get involved with their own ventures. One of these companies is Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, which appears to be on the brink of building the first commercial hyperloop project in the United Arab Emirates.
According to a Gulf News report by Cleofe Maceda, the initial work is already underway:
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