HS2 route designer rubbishes hyperloop feasibility

[John Ashworth]

HS2 route designer rubbishes hyperloop feasibility

Hyperloop technology lacks the capacity to be a worthwhile investment, the chief route designer of High Speed 2 (HS2) has warned...

Justifying UK investment in high speed rail as opposed to hyperloop technology, McNaughton said: “Why is every country building high-speed railways rather than investing in hyperloop? It is because high-speed rail works, it is predictable, it meets the need to bring people from city to city reliably in the time that they need to be, and it has capacity. Remember that high speed rail has the capacity for people-carrying of more than new motorways.

“Forget the assumption that they will sort out the safety case for propelling people underground. I do not need to talk about that. It does not have any capacity.”

He added: “How does [hyperloop] rebalance an economy if only a few people an hour can travel? How does that meet the social equity test?”...