Virgin Hyperloop shifts to cargo, abandons passenger transport

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Eurorapid
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Virgin Hyperloop shifts to cargo, abandons passenger transport

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Virgin Hyperloop laid off almost half of its staff working on Friday, making 111 people redundant, as the company shifts focus from transporting people to shipping freight.

“It’s allowing the company to respond in a more agile and nimble way and in a more cost-efficient manner,” Virgin Hyperloop told the Financial Times [...]

But hyperloops—which propose propelling passengers down a vacuum-sealed tube in pods at speeds reaching 670 miles per hour—were struggling to gain traction long before COVID. Virgin Hyperloop has only intrigued one potential client, Saudi Arabia, since its inception in 2014, while rival hyperloop ventures have already given up.

[...]

Musk and his businesses aren’t building any hyperloop services.

[...]

Virgin, meanwhile, has had little more success with its hyperloop initiative than Musk has had with car tunnels. In November 2020, Virgin Hyperloop became the first and only hyperloop company to successfully test passenger transport. (There are other hyperloop rivals besides Musk’s, such as the Dutch Hardt Hyperloop, which is also targeting cargo transport.)

[...]

In 2016, leaked documents showed Virgin Hyperloop estimated its proposed hyperloop line connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco would cost roughly $84 million to $121 million per mile. Another proposal linking Abu Dhabi with Dubai was quoted at $52 million per mile. Both costs are higher than the $11.5 million per mile price tag Musk originally envisioned in his 2013 hyperloop white paper [...]

Maintaining miles of hermetically sealed tubing would be a costly logistical nightmare, too. Any breach of the seal would ruin the partial vacuum, which is necessary to create a low friction environment in which the internal train can reach high speed.

So far, Virgin Hyperloop has raised just $400 million in financing from investors [...].

[...]

Now that the unit is pivoting to freight, Virgin’s involvement makes less sense. Last year, Virgin Hyperloop suffered an exodus of executive talent reportedly tied to the group's shift to freight.

[...]

“It’s abundantly clear that potential customers are interested in cargo, while passenger is somewhat farther away,” DP World told the FT. “Focusing on [cargo] pallets is easier to do—there is less risk for passengers and less of a regulatory process.”

If the hyperloop cargo transport business proves successful, DP World says profits could be reinvested in developing a passenger version of the Virgin Hyperloop train. But other countries have already developed high speed rail links at similar costs without the need for convoluted tubing.

[...]

The maglev doesn’t zoom along in a tube but, unlike any hyperloop to date, it's already in use.
Source: https://fortune.com/2022/02/22/virgin-h ... d-branson/ Accessed: 2022-02-22
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Eurorapid
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Virgin Hyperloop’s mass layoffs

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The title of the report is quite blunt:
Virgin Hyperloop’s mass layoffs and pivot to freight all but kill the dream of traveling by tube
https://fortune.com/2022/02/22/virgin-h ... d-branson/ Accessed: 2022-02-22
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Parrahub1
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Re: Virgin Hyperloop’s mass layoffs

Unread post by Parrahub1 »

Eurorapid wrote:
22. Feb 2022, 18:04
The title of the report is quite blunt:
Virgin Hyperloop’s mass layoffs and pivot to freight all but kill the dream of traveling by tube
https://fortune.com/2022/02/22/virgin-h ... d-branson/ Accessed: 2022-02-22
To make it economically viable it has to have overnight container trains between big cities in a single breathable 11 psi atmosphere which can the keep daytime passenger fares lower than planes.

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Eurorapid
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Cargo Hyperloop “doesn’t make any sense”

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Virgin Hyperloop has laid off almost half its staff, as the company has shifted its focus from passenger travel to freight.

[...]

Despite being the only company using this technology that has completed a successful test run with passengers, Virgin Hyperloop announced it will now focus on freight rather than passenger travel. As reasons behind the move, the company cited global supply chain issues and changes due to the pandemic. It also mentioned a strong customer interest in a cargo-based service.

[...]

Railway engineer and writer Gareth Dennis told NCE that the company may have decided to make the shift to freight in order to raise capital.

He says that using Hyperloop for freight “doesn’t make any sense” because most freight is not time critical. “You would be investing in an enormous amount of unnecessary infrastructure to achieve very little, because freight is not time critical. To get it to be going at this high speed doesn’t solve anything.”

Another reason why Dennis believes that maglev systems like Hyperloop would not be suitable for freight is that they do not offer volume.

He also believes that there would not be demand for these systems by the freight sector because of cost. “Anyone who's moving goods around is going to want to do so in the cheapest way possible and the cheapest way possible is to use existing systems. Intermodal Freight is an incredible feat of organisation and standardisation, there's very little to best that system,” he says.
[...]
https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest ... 3-02-2022/ Accessed: 2022-02-23
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Eurorapid
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More hype than Hyperloop?

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Virgin is the only company to have completed a successful passenger ride using hyperloop technology so far. It took two passengers - both company staff - on a 500m test-track, reaching speeds of 107mph (172km/h) in November 2020.

But many felt the technology was more hype than Hyperloop.

At present, the transport system is unable to cope with corners, so the tracks have to run in a straight line.

Moreover, the costs of building such systems at scale would run into the billions.
Source: BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60478719 Accessed: 2022-02-24

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2022-02-24 Virgin Hyperloop
2022-02-24 Virgin Hyperloop
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Photo: Virgin Hyperloop
Source: BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60478719 Accessed: 2022-02-24
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Eurorapid
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[US] Hypernope? Hyperloop company sorts itself out

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Hypernope? MORPC turns to rail, BRT projects as hyperloop company sorts itself out

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2022-04-07_Virgin Hyperloop
2022-04-07_Virgin Hyperloop
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Source: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/in ... ative.html Accessed: 2022-04-07
Virgin Hyperloop, the Los Angeles company planning a Chicago-Columbus-Pittsburgh route for its ultra-high-speed new transportation mode, has shifted focus to cargo-only in recent months – despite a win in November's landmark federal infrastructure law making it eligible for federal funding.

But the law affects federal incentives and funding structure without changing regulatory apparatus, said Thea Ewing, chief regional development officer and senior director of programming for the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.

Virgin Hyperloop still lacks U.S. Department of Transportation certification, so MORPC can't apply for any federal funds toward developing the route.

"In order for us to pull down money from this landmark legislation for this technology, they would have to be certified. We don’t foresee that happening in the short term," Ewing told Columbus Business First. "We just recognize this is not going to be a passenger solution any time soon."

Virign Hyperloop did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[...]

News releases on the company website this year have emphasized cargo and its partnership with a Dubai shipping company. The company also has its second interim CEO over the past year.

[...]
Source: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/in ... ative.html Accessed: 2022-04-07
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david
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Re: Virgin Hyperloop shifts to cargo, abandons passenger transport

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That was kinda foreseeable.

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