Between Calgary and Edmonton, in southern Canada, there are about 280 kilometers in a straight line. If you wanted to go from one city to another by car, you would need about three hours. That for now, of course. If the TransPod company has its way, one day you could move between the two metropolises in 45 minutes, more or less what you need to see an episode of ‘The Sandman’. The key: its innovative ultra-fast train, a prototype that aspire to eat (sic) to the Hyperloop.
The project is called FluxJet and its creators do not beat around the bush when it comes to setting goals. They want to “redefine passenger and cargo transportation.” What is known at the moment of its technical sheet, of course, is striking. FluxJet is presented as “a hybrid between plane and train” capable of traveling at more than 1,000 km / h, which would exceed commercial airplanes and triple the majority of high-speed trains. His maximum mark would rise up to 1,200km/h.
How? At the moment the project is just that, a proposal in the conceptual phase, but the company has in mind to use magnetic levitation trains about 25 meters long that would travel at high speeds, New Atlas points out, through hyperloop-style vacuum tubes. . “With technological advances in contactless power transmission and a new field of physics called veillance fluxthe Fluxjet travels on a protected road at more than 1,000 km/h”, he details.
The goal: fast, frequent, cheap and green
To achieve similar heart attack speeds, FluxJet will eliminate rolling resistance using mag-lev technology. Of course, only on trips between cities and when you reach high speeds, at least 300 km / h. Its prototypes are designed to move exclusively through the TransPod Line, the Canadian firm’s network proposal, a system with stations distributed at strategic points that also guarantees a frequent flow.
Each of its capsules has a capacity for 54 passengers or approximately ten tons of cargo. The firm wants that, when the time comes, they circulate with “a high frequency”. In terms of costs, he assures that his future clients will be able to travel on FluxJet for 44% less than the cost of a plane ticket. It is not the only advantage. Being an electric system, they assure that TransPod Line will reduce CO2 emissions by some 636,000 tons per year.
All this, of course, on paper. Shaping its ambitious infrastructure between the populous cities of Calgary and Edmonton will require $18 billion, a more than considerable amount that in any case has not prevented them from starting the preliminary work, including the environmental impact assessment. Funds have to start. TransPod assures that it has obtained a financing of about 550 million dollars, which allows them – the CNBC chain specifies – to pay for its research, development and plans to build a test track.
Investment is not, however, the only challenge that the Canadian company will have to face.
The proposal is ambitious, of course; but it is not, by far, the first for a hyperloop-style train. Over the last few years we have seen several similar projects, some championed by billionaires Richard Branson and Elon Musk.
The first, Virgin Hyperloop, has just taken a relevant turn, points out The Verge, by laying off a good part of its staff and changing its focus: from looking at passenger traffic to the past to focus on commercial, simpler from a point of view. regulatory view. The second, The Boring Company, has tested and dug tunnels in the US, although it has not yet reached its ambitious goals. In April it was proposed Start “large-scale tests” already at the end of 2022.
Pictures | TransPod
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism