The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) has smashed the record for the longest-ever Hyperloop test. The technology, often hailed as the public transport of the future, has the potential to whisk passengers along at extremely high speeds.

EPFL conducts longest-ever Hyperloop test

In a statement, EPFL confirmed that it had successfully tested a Hyperloop system. Together with Swisspod Technologies and HEIG-VD from Vaud, the team from the university carried out 82 tests using a 120-metre-long circular test track, which is designed to simulate how a hyperloop would work on a larger scale.

Originally proposed in 2013 in a white paper published by entrepreneur and infamous business magnate Elon Musk, the concept sees carriages (typically called “pods”) pass through a pressurised tube using a vacuum or magnetic propulsion system. In theory, the lack of air resistance and friction would allow a Hyperloop to travel at airline-like speeds on the ground.

Swisspod system would travel 488 km / h at full scale

At EPFL, experts were able to run a 1 to 12-scale version of the Hyperloop for 11,8 kilometres at 40,7 kilometres per hour, breaking the record for the longest-ever test of the technology. “In a full-scale system, this translates into a journey of 141,6 km, roughly the distance between Geneva and Bern (…) and speeds of up to 488,2 km / h,” the university wrote. 

The test’s success was labelled as “decisive for the high-speed transport sector.” In a statement, Swisspod CEO Denis Tudor added that it “is a key step towards making Hyperloop a reality for people transportation and changing the way we connect, work and live.”

Is Hyperloop a viable technology?

While Hyperloop may spark dreams of super-fast environmentally friendly travel, many have been concerned about how little progress has been made since it was originally proposed in 2013. To date, the only life-size test of the technology came in 2020, when Virgin Hyperloop’s pod reached speeds of 172 kilometres per hour - the company went bust in December 2023.

As a result, many critics have labelled Hyperloop as a "gadgetbahn" - an expensive, untested, futurist system where investing in conventional technology such as high-speed rail would have been preferable. With the system relying on passengers moving through a pressurised tube system covering hundreds of kilometres at high speeds, experts at MIT and the University of Loughborough (among others) have raised, safety, comfort and cost concerns.

Nevertheless, EPFL said that it would be conducting further tests of the technology to see how the Hyperloop would work in real-world conditions. They expect to run a full-size freight version of the system in the United States in the next few years.

Thumb image credit: Swisspod CC BY-ND