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Hyperloop May Cross the Atlantic into Europe, with an Unlikely Target

The thought of ground-level transport (well, almost ground-level, as the Hyperloop track is slightly elevated) just below the speed of sound has understandably sparked the imagination of a lot of people.
Hyperloop tubes 1 photo
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube
Some, though, have invested more than just a thought in this idea, with two companies currently making all the headlines, while SpaceX is also doing its best to support the project. One of these two enterprises is called Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) and, unlike its main competitor, Hyperloop Technologies Inc. (HTI), it is crowdsourcing all of its labor and physical resources.

Traveling all over the world in search of governments willing to support its project has been part of HTT's plan to gain the upper hand, and it may have found the perfect partner in one of the ex-communist central-European countries.

Slovakia is trying to build a new image for its nation, and it has chosen technology as its means of doing it. The local government is willing to invest in projects that will put Slovakia on the world's technological map, and being the first country to host a Hyperloop track would do just that.

HTT CEO, Dirk Alhborn, is understandably happy about the deal, even though it is yet unclear exactly what has been agreed upon. In any case, two routes have been nominated for now that would link Slovakia's capital, Bratislava, to its counterparts from two of the neighboring countries: Vienna in Austria and Budapest in Hungary.

Given the shorter distances in Europe, the trip from Bratislava to Vienna would take just 8 minutes, and provided the whole procedure of embarking would be considerably less tedious than at an airport, the Hyperloop could prove to be the closest thing to teleportation we have right now.

The day Hyperloop becomes a reality is still a distant one, though. The companies involved are all planning to begin testing this year, but that doesn't give any kind of assurances. It could still prove to be too cost-ineffective or too unsafe for public usage. On the other hand, even if Hyperloop were to become nothing more than a modern, gigantic version of the pneumatic tube, transporting only goods from one place to another at great speeds, it could provide a pretty significant change in the way the world goes.

Whatever will happen, the fact that European countries are joining in on the Hyperloop craze can only be a positive sign. This thing can only work if everybody's on board. But rest assured, if it proves to be successful, once the first segment is done and people start popping up from one place to another, all countries will jump in. The important thing now are this year's tests, and we're pretty excited to see how that goes.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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