Travelling between the North of England’s six major cities in just 47 minutes could become reality with a revolutionary new transport system on the shortlist of an Elon Musk-inspired global challenge.
The Northern Arc proposal has been revealed as one of nine shortlisted routes spanning Europe as part of Hyperloop One’s global challenge, at the Vision for Europe conference in Amsterdam.
Hyperloop One is the company behind a futuristic super-fast transport system, which uses electric propulsion to accelerate a passenger or cargo pod through a low-pressure tube at speeds of up to 700mph.
The firm, which is currently testing on a two-mile tube in Nevada desert, has already announced the first version could connect Dubai to Abu Dhabi in 12 minutes.
UK-based Ryder-Architecture and Arup with support from KPMG proposes to “transform” the travel in the North.
The Northern Arc route covers Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The team behind the Northern Arc route said it has the potential to connect 10.4 million people across the six cities of the north with the total journey time of 47 minutes.
The Northern Arc team have received strong levels of support on the government bodies.
Paul Bell, partner at Ryder said, “Northern Arc is more than a Hyperloop route – it is the economic region that the northern powerhouse should be and we’re excited to be involved in this pioneering opportunity.”
A total of 2,600 groups from around the world wanted to be part of the Hyperloop project and only nine, including three in the UK, have made it through to the next stage.Other shortlisted schemes come from Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Finland.
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