First Hyperloop Tipped To Be Built In India, Will Transport Passengers At Speeds Over 670mph (1000km/h)

In the years since Elon Musk’s first proposed the ‘Hyperloop’, questions have swirled about which will be the first country to introduce this radical new form of transportation. Now, we have more clarification in the matter with talk about India being the first cab off the rank.

The hyperloop race is being led by Virgin Hyperloop One with the backing of Sir Richard Branson. Speaking with Yahoo Finance, company chief executive Jay Walder, revealed work is underway on a project in India.

“One of the big projects that we’ve been working on right now is in India — it’s to build a route from Mumbai to Pune,” he said.” “That’s about a [75-mile] route… the first phase of that project will be [7.5 miles]. … I think there’ll be shovels in the ground by the end of 2020. So it’s really exciting. It’s happening. It’s here now.”

Also Read: BMW Designworks And Virgin Design A Capsule For 671mph / 1080kph Dubai Hyperloop

A host of cities and countries around the world have reportedly expressed interest in Hyperloop systems, including Dubai and Saudi Arabia. However, bringing the technology to the market is proving to be a long process.

The most recent full-scale test from Virgin Hyperloop One that has been publicized came in late 2017 and saw a test pod accelerate through to 240 mph (387 km/h), well short of the 671 mph (1080 km/h) top speed being targeted by the technology company.

“Our pod literally floats on a bed of air,” Walder added when describing the Hyperloop. “But, unlike maglev systems that are being used around the world in different places in an open environment, like in closing in an enclosed environment, we create a much faster and a much more environmentally friendly system.”

Elon Musk himself is also working on making the Hyperloop a reality.


  • europeon

    Not again with this nonsense. How on earth can be some people so gullible?

    Kids, stay in school and pay attention to physics classes. This is the only way you won’t be fooled and fall pray to stupid ideas like this.

    • HD

      Oh not your ignorant rant again. The team of engineers replied to all the “I know better” guys on the Internet (find it on Reddit). Get off your high horse. Also you might want to try one of the dozen Maglev lines running in multiple countries right now.

      • europeon

        I was on the Reddit AMA, along with other people that actually have a degree in science, and they refused or deflected to answer the questions regarding the structural integrity of a structure that has to withstand the pressures they claim (200 pa IIRC).

        If you would have stayed in school instead of posting stupid comment on the Internet, you would have known that not the speed (TGV, Shinkansen etc) or the maglev technology is the problem – there are hundreds of maglev lines around the world, some of them even underground – but the stupid “vacuum” (excuse me, “near vacuum”) claim. And that is the only thing that differentiates the “Hyperloop” from a normal underground high speed train.

        • RageOfSimba

          air friction beyond 200 mph starts playing a significant role in both drag and comfort (“turbulence”). Maglev speeds are pinnacle and the coefficient of drag beyond current speeds makes it very diffivulty to breach higher speeds. the solution is vacuum. where speed is irrelevant only acceleration matters

          • europeon

            Except that you can’t have such a large structure with vacuum inside. You skipped school too, isn’t it?

          • stucrmnx120fshwf

            Like the vacuum chambers to test spacecraft, are impossible I suppose, they have a much bigger volume, vacuum is easy, compared to pressure, a submarine, is far harder to secure than a vacuum tube, the pressures they keep out, are huge compared. Truckloads of pressure, per square inch, did you know, the Apollo lunar module, had very thin walls, to keep the pressure in, from a vast expanse, of very hard vacuum.

          • europeon

            Have you seen those vacuum chambers? The NASA’s facility is merely 25 by 30 m big, and its walls are 3 m thick concrete lined with inches of aluminum to keep it from imploding and to keep a tight seal.
            This is completely different from spacecrafts or compressed gas tanks (which, btw, support much higher pressures, because of their small size and the fact they’re self contained units.
            I really recommend you to take 15 minutes to google for “hyperloop vacuum problem” and “hyperloop thermal expansion”, then come back with an apology.

          • stucrmnx120fshwf

            Merely 90 foot wide, not a spherical or tubular structure, that’s a lot wider than a Hyperloop tunnel. You can apologize for your insults, of heaps of people who put a lot of work in, in achieving this practical concept.

          • europeon

            Oh yeah, when science becomes and insult, I think the conversation must stop.

          • stucrmnx120fshwf

            What weirdness are you saying now, your against science now, I looked into your videos, they’re 28 minutes long, I didn’t want to join a cult. Most people think, you’re uneducated, stupid and ignorant, are insults, I’m not joining your cult.

          • europeon

            That’s fine. The “cult of educated people” isn’t for you anyway.

          • stucrmnx120fshwf

            Us uneducated people don’t understand why fundamentalist anti technology, is educated anyway, to us falling solar prices means rising energy consumption and capital for big infrastructure projects, to you the great Stagnation, of 45 years in the developed world, is sacred. Change, is heracy, blasphemy, only the dark ages are holy, clean Disruption, roaring twenties, third industrial revolution, must be stopped at all costs, even if the environment gets wrecked. 33 times as much solar in a decade, 1/10th of the price per kWh than a decade ago, but you would have said impossible, just like vacuum tube magnetic levitation rail is impossible to you now.

          • europeon

            Anti-technology? WTF? In this case it’s anti-stupidity.
            And what does have solar energy have to do with all this?

          • stucrmnx120fshwf

            Cheap solar, will increase the amount of energy used, by 25 times, before the Grand Depression hits in 2030, that’s a lot of capital, to accelerate Japan’s magnetic levitation railway tunnel network, already under construction. We’ve seen China go high speed rail mostly in a decade, going high speed rail, in Belt Road, talking about magnetic levitation railways, because the high speed railways have been so successful, with an end to the Great Stagnation of 45 years in the developed world.

            The United States has the world’s most extensive railway network, only used for freight largely, but what if capital were again available for a decade. Heroic engineering would return, in the past, we built transcontinental railways, highways, canals, New Delhi, has a new Metro system, with 190 stations, the United States has stopped net importing oil, transportation and energy can change in a decade. The problems of transportation, are capital related, not so much engineering, Chinese tests got maglev up to 3,000 km/h, yes there are caveats to that, small scale. The Gothard Swiss Alps tunnel, Chunnel, show that with money, a Himalayas tunnel bridge, Bering Straits tunnel bridge are possible, China is already in Nepal, by rail, Russia is going high speed rail on the trans Siberian.

            Cheap liquid hydrogen fueled aircraft are a bigger reason for vacuum tunnel magnetic levitation railways to not succeed, than engineering, but railways have a city centre, to city centre advantage, like high rise agriculture has an advantage to being nearer to it’s market, with fresher food, at lower prices, with cheap energy. Remember solar power will be 1/10th of it’s current price in 2030.

          • europeon
          • stucrmnx120fshwf

            The tests and the moon landing, were both faked I suppose.

          • europeon

            A spacecraft (or a submarine for that matter) aren’t meant for general public use or made with cost in mind.

          • stucrmnx120fshwf

            Holding out a paltry 1 atmosphere of pressure, in a vessel a fraction of the width of a submarine. A fraction of the pressure of the 1,000 atmospheres, the physics are cheap. Tunnels are built under harbours of deep water, keeping out 15 atmospheres.

          • europeon

            I told you to go and educate yourself, but I forgot that indeed there is no cure for ignorance and stupidity…

          • stucrmnx120fshwf

            It says no personal insults you’ve broken that rule, I’m a qualified welder, I’ve scuba dived. There are a million people in the sky right now, in a pressure vessel light enough, to fly. I also qualified as a network administrator, saw 2 launches, but you’ll just make dumb insults. Tunnels deep under the sea, but you’re like the people who got on planes and said it’s not safe, there’s no air up there. What if the water breaks in to the tunnel, air and rail travel are a thousand times safer, than any other form of transportation.

            I know, they faked the Moon landing, they faked the tests, that resulted in the studys starting in India. They’re not fools.

          • europeon

            Oh boy… Being a qualified welder and a scuba diver qualifies you for what exactly?
            Physics is physics and you lack the basic understanding of it.

          • stucrmnx120fshwf

            Since the cold war, China and India have been booming, the western great stagnation, of 45 years, is built on doubt. A steel or concrete steel tube can take a lot of pressure, 1 ton bombs can explode above them and they still don’t implode and that was 75 years ago.

          • europeon

            Please, go to youtube and search for Thunderf00t’s “The Hyperloop: BUSTED!” and “Entire Hyperloop could be destroyed in SECONDS!” – the video that deals with vacuum and thermal expansion. Come back after you watch that, I’ll be happy to continue the discussion after and I’ll promise without being condescending towards you.

          • stucrmnx120fshwf

            I’ve got things to do, maybe later.

      • Howfarr

        I also have read through the Reddit thread you are referring to.
        I also have a 1st class masters degree in Mechanical Engineering.

        Hyperloop is technically feasible to build and run. Its also an idiotically expensive and over-complicated way of transporting people. For cargo its only stupidly expensive and over-complicated (because like air cargo, the cargo itself isn’t as concerned with pressurization, temperature, oxygen supply, or the acceleration and deceleration required). Still stupid though.

        • stucrmnx120fshwf

          This degree in mechanical engineering, would that be the same degree, that the Japanese have, when currently building a national network of magnetic levitation train tunnels, or the same degree, the Germans have, when they built the Shanghai Maglev 15 years ago. Would it be the same degree, that they used to figure out that the lines are getting too crowded, on high speed rail, in China, hence the push towards magnetic levitation rail lines. Wouldn’t you have said that the Japanese bullet train, is impossible, European high speed rail is impossible, Korean, Taiwanese, etc.

          Chunnel, Gothenburg Swiss Alps tunnel, Belt Road, Suez, Panama canals, transcontinental railways, 747, Moon landing, China going high speed rail, Australia becoming the largest exporter of natural gas, the US no longer a net importer of oil. Ford, Tesla, Edison, you’re wrong, it can’t be done you’d say, I know, I’m a conservative, all change is impossible, horseless carriages, sir you are a madman, next you’ll be saying a man can go faster than a horse and not get crushed by the speed. That man can fly, bunkum I say and my circular logic, proves it, you’d say. Cathode ray tube screens, being replaced by led photovoltaic screens, in a decade nonsense, this degree, does it refute the tests, on short track, the Chinese tests, same old ludite crud, liquid hydrogen aircraft impossible, the fuel is too light, you need a heavy fuel, for light composite aircraft, it stands to reason, you’d say.

          • Howfarr

            @europeon:disqus literally you cannot argue with stupid

          • stucrmnx120fshwf

            But I am arguing with you right now and you are stupid, if an astronaut can move his fingers in hard vacuum. Using just the muscles in his fingers, in a mere flexible garment , your degree must be in being an imbacile.

          • Howfarr

            Can you read?
            My first comment says it is technically feasible to build and run
            Just moronically over-complicated mass transport.

          • stucrmnx120fshwf

            According to you I’m stupid, so therefore logically, I must be illiterate, it just stands to reason doesn’t it.

  • LJ

    Imagine if one broke down or caught on fire, and you’re stuck in that tube burning to death.

    • brn

      Just like the subway?

      • LJ

        Except much more constrictive and 10 times faster.

        • Squeaky_1

          Nothing to burn mate, no lithium batteries in the loop. All powered from the track. No combustibles in that loop at all. Seems ultra safe to me. As long as they don’t stop, mid-tube!

          • Howfarr

            No lithium batteries in the loop? So no one is going to carry cellphones or laptops? No power outlets inside? Only non-flammable cargo?

          • RageOfSimba

            how is this any different from realities of an airplane. no one has stopped flying because of laptops in planes

          • Howfarr

            Its no different

          • you know someone’s going to bring a hoverboard in there eventually

    • Netsphere

      no oxygen to support the flame, nice try

      • LJ

        So what will the passengers be breathing?

        • Netsphere

          what exactly will be catching on fire inside the cabin? do you catch on fire randomly in your car? damn pple are dumb

          • Enter Ranting

            Is the car in question a Tesla?

          • Netsphere

            lol, nice

  • Mr. EP9

    Aren’t their more pressing concerns in India that should be addressed instead of wasting money on a literal pipe dream?

    • thejohnnycanuck

      No sh*t. Over 20 major cities are running out of ground water and this is the kind of crap they’re worried about.

      • brn

        Move. Seriously, there’s no water shortage, as long as you live where the water is.

        • jimie orleg

          I did move, just not far enough. When cults like the Hasidic Jews in Lakewood NJ
          somehow get to ignore virtually every environmental factor in building/expanding
          (much of due to the super liberal NJ state supreme court letting them do whatever
          they want, fearing antisemitism more than the eco freaks I guess). So now they turned
          a rural town into a city, that never had the planned infrastructure and they are sapping
          up huge amount of water, since they typically have 7-9 children each.

          • Paulbe

            Calling Jews “Jews” will get you labelled an anti-Semite these days.

          • brn


    • Octane

      A pipe dream, you mean?

    • HD

      Should they also cancel their space projects because of this? You understand that projects can run side-by-side and a private investment in India is not going to increase the number of people pooping outdoors (there is a project for fixing that too btw).

    • RageOfSimba

      you mean like giving toilets to each and every person? Done. took 5 years but this govt delivered.
      make india power surplus unlike earlier days? Done.
      a country can dream big while solving the big problems as well. no where is it written wait for x to happen before prioritizing y.

  • Super Rob

    My idea is still better. Build a hyperloop from the docks to a yard inland. Instead of trucks carrying shipping containers from the docks, just shoot them through the hyperloop away from the city and the truck traffic moves there. The big containers are a standard size, so just push them through. Baltimore, NY, and LA could move the trucks out of the city.
    Later they could expand it where containers are being sent from LA to Dallas through a hyperloop.

  • john1168

    I hope they made enough room for people to ride on the roof and hang off the sides:)

    • raikkonen

      Absolutely the most non-politically correct statement ever made, and although I don’t agree, I literally laughed out loud!

  • kachuks

    A 75 mile route from Mumbai to Pune… at 670 mph?

    • Howfarr

      Hope everything inside going to be strapped down!

  • Charles Chin


  • Wayne Alan Carr Heyes

    What concerns me are these earthquake proof? Bomb proof ?

    • Matt

      What form of public transport is bomb-proof though?

    • RageOfSimba

      mumbai pune belt is actually not in a seismic zone. rare minuscule rumblings do happen. but yeah the system should take into account at least minor earthquakes. doubt anyone can do anything about ritcher 5+..

  • Wayne Alan Carr Heyes

    What happens if it breaks down in the tunnel there is no way of getting out! The air is non existent

    • RageOfSimba

      what happens if a plane develops a snag at 40000 feet and decompresses violently? the oxygen masks drop. think along the same lines.

      • Howfarr

        Its not along the same lines, hyperloop pod will need its own oxygen supply since its a spaceship in a vacuum tube.
        Shockingly space-ships are MUCH more complicated and vulnerable than planes

    • europeon

      Don’t worry. You can’t suck the air out from suck a large structure. It’s near impossible to do that in a commercial environment that has safety standards and has to deal with “user” error.

  • Howfarr

    This thing has been busted and debunked soooo many times how is it still going?

  • sidewaysspin

    Here it is the answer to those very polluting airplanes.

  • until the tube ruptures red misting everyone inside!

  • europeon

    Reading the comments of the people that lack the understanding of basic physics, I feel compelled to post the following gif:

  • Loquacious Borborygmus

    Aw Hell! 400 Indians hanging off the sides and roof of a pod hurtling down a tunnel at 670 mph.











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