The Hyperloop - more than just a pipe dream?

How a 19th century communication technology will radically change the way we travel by michael magee

Almost a decade ago, the founder of the current leader in space travel, SpaceX’s Elon Musk, published an open source paper titled “Hyperloop Alpha” wherein the practicalities of implementing a new form of high-speed travel were explored in a little over 50 pages. Musk invited the world’s scientist to develop the concept, and Richard Branson’s “Virgin Hyperloop” has since presented itself as the leader in the race. In November 2020, Virgin Hyperloop had its first successful manned run in a Hyperloop tunnel.

2020 is a year that saw many of our lives put on hold. All sorts of businesses were affected, from those based in catering and events to simple commodities like hairdressers and sports centers. However, while entire economies suffered, 2020 was an eventful year for the sciences.

Outside of epidemiology (which, naturally, was heavily researched) there were some significant advances; the first room temperature superconductor was created, and while it has some limitations, it could provide the first steps towards a new highly efficient power source. The five decade old “black hole paradox” was solved, new chemical compounds were found on Venus that could be indicators of life, and our own presence in space has changed its nature somewhat. Hundreds of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are occupying Earth’s orbit, and last year the same company was the first to send human beings up to the International Space Station in a privately owned vessel.

The transportation tubes we see in Futurama are almost here, under the name of ‘Hyperloop’.

One trope of science fiction movies in particular is becoming more and more of a reality. The transportation tubes we see in Futurama are almost here, under the name of ‘Hyperloop’.

This mode of transport seems so futuristic that many people are taken aback by the very idea, but the concept was put into practice back as far as the mid 19th century. In 1853 “pneumatic tubes” began their use between banking firms and the telegraph office in London. This was done because, while telegraph communication was extremely fast, all communications landed in a central hub from where they had to be delivered to their respective final destinations via horse carriage. This last step of the delivery process was troublesome because of traffic in the city streets, so financial firms were connected to the central hub by tubes. Messages (and in one of the test runs, a cat) were placed inside capsules which were pushed along the tubes. To provide the pushing force, a vacuum was created inside the tubes, which caused a difference in air pressure on either side of the capsule. The vacuum inside the tube meant significantly less air resistance to slow down the capsule (this is why airplanes can go so fast, since in the upper levels of our atmosphere air resistance is lessened by lack of air pressure). This reduction of resistance is the central point of Hyperloop travel. The Hyperloop goes a step further however, in that it doesn’t simply reduce resistance coming from the front of the capsule, but also seeks to fight gravity and friction from the underside. It does this by causing the capsule to levitate off the floor of the tube, using either air pumps or magnets. This allows the Hyperloop capsule to slip through the tunnel at over 1000 kilometres an hour, which is faster than a Boeing 747 airplane.

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By the time pneumatic systems were commonplace, they would circulate up to 200,000 letters per hour in cities from New York to Prague. However, once cities grew in size and started to cater to motor transport that was also becoming more commonplace, pneumatic systems became too difficult to install and maintain. After a while, they began to be used exclusively for transporting documents within buildings, like department stores and banks.

What will it do to everyday life? A time schedule has yet to be determined, but currently 2030 is the goal for having a working hyperloop somewhere in the world. Analysis of the environmental impact must be done, alongside more tests and then, of course, permits for vast expanses of land must be acquired for construction.

While the Hyperloop may reshape how we travel, the external effects could be extensive. Perhaps the first to come to most people’s minds will be the possibility to visit far away cities for day trips. This new possibility for spontaneity will stimulate tourism, but other potential impacts are plentiful because of the fact that it won’t necessarily be primarily used for holidays, but for workers and transportation of goods. It will inevitably have an effect on the housing market because people will be able to live in cheaper cities while working in, for example, London. The same applies to education; people unable to afford living in London can complete a University course in the city that serves them well without having to settle for a university in a nearby city. How exactly the housing market will adapt to this is not clear, and depends on whether there will be multiple stops in other smaller cities along the Hyperloop route. At least for the beginning however, different groups could see new opportunities presented to them for employment and education.

The postal service will be largely sped up because of the fact that goods as well as people will be in transit, and this may have an effect on how we shop. If we can order something on Amazon and have it sent through an underground Hyperloop network directly to our neighborhood, packages could theoretically be ordered at a couple of hours notice. This could have an effect on the very existence of physical shops and anything that isn’t Amazon, which are already threatened by current day standards of pricing and delivery times provided by the company.

Whether the Hyperloop changes things for better or for worse remains to be seen, but this technology has the potential to be revolutionary. It seems that a new era is coming for transportation technologies; autonomous cars are being perfected and even space travel is becoming cheaper with improving materials and fueling techniques. Our first month of 2021 also presented us with a new train prototype from China, which, like the Hyperloop, uses magnetic levitation to reach speeds as high as 600 kilometres per hour. These technologies provide us with yet another example of sci-fi predicting the future and inspiring innovation, and shows us that even our wildest fantasies can come true.

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