Josh Giegel says Saudi Arabia is a 'big market' for futuristic transport ambitions
Virgin Hyperloop is targeting 2024 for the launch of its first commercial pilot systems, said the company’s new CEO.
“We will deploy the working system and afterwards the passenger systems will shortly come into play in the late 2020s,” Josh Giegel, co-founder, told Arabian Business, adding that the first route may be launched in Saudi Arabia as “it’s a big market for us.”
“In future it will be possible cross the Gulf faster than Manhattan [New York],” Giegel added.
Virgin says its technology – which would see pressurised trains travel though tunnels at the speed of aeroplanes – could eventually transport 50 million passengers per year across the Gulf.
Travelling from Riyadh to Jeddah would take just 46 minutes with a hyperloop instead of one and a half hours by plane.
In November, Virgin Hyperloop trialled its first journey with passengers in Nevada, US. In the trial, two passengers – one of which was Giegel – travelled a 500 metres test track in 15 seconds, reaching 172km per hour. Virgin is aiming to eventually run the trains at 1000km per hour.
Connecting Saudi Arabia
Virgin and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Transport in February 2020 announced a partnership to conduct a pre-feasibility study on the use of hyperloop technology to transport passengers and cargo, which Virgin said was the first step towards a network of routes to be considered across the kingdom.
“Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the region by land and influence. We have this idea of a connected Gulf coming out like a spider web from the kingdom,” said Giegel. “It plays into the country’s 2030 Vision... our transport network could create a new backbone for the region.”
The Hyperloop could potentially deliver a maximum journey length of one hour between any two points in the Gulf, he said.
“We want to connect the region a way that hasn't been done before,” Giegel said, adding that desert environs present some unique engineering challenges, such as hot temperatures, sandy tracks and errant camels.
“In the Gulf, governments have the chance to build something new as there is less legacy. There is a lot of infrastructure to build,” the CEO said, adding that the joint MoU would generate "valuable data" that the kingdom could export globally in time.
Virgin is also working towards a project in Dubai for port operator DP World and on a system connecting the Indian cities Mumbai and Pune.
In June, Virgin partnered with the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MZUAI) in the UAE to work on next generation solutions to help power the Hyperloop.
“Our partnership with MZUAI is helping us to build a local ecosystem of AI-qualified professionals who understand our business,” Giegel (picturred below) said. “We are very software-led – we are looking to be a company that is empowered by software, which makes us better and safer over time.”
Across the Middle East, Virgin Hyperloop has plans for 4,000km of track. “We could also radically hasten freight and logistics speeds across the region,” said Giegel.
“In 20 years time, you will see the Hyperloop moving the majority of people between Neom [smart city] and the rest of Saudi Arabia,” he said. “We are enabling a whole new future of movement, which will be fast and run on sustainable energy,” he added – citing either solar or green hydrogen as possible fuel sources.
“It’s just going to be a game-changer where people will be able to live in one Gulf country and work in another,” Giegel said. “The Gulf region could have the world’s first national scale network and that’s exciting."
Virgin Hyperloop has already conducted over 500 tests, with investors including DP World and Abu Dhabi Capita Group.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Alicia Buller
Quelle/Source: Arabian Business, 24.04.2021
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