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Australia’s new hope for a high-speed train

Elon Musk's Hyperloop technology could be coming to Australia.

Elon Musk's Hyperloop technology could be coming to Australia. Photo: Hyperloop Transportation Technologies

A new high-speed train that promises passengers the ability to travel from Sydney to Melbourne in less than an hour is a step closer to reality – and without an engine in sight.

Blueprints released in 2013 by Elon Musk, founder of transport technology companies Tesla and SpaceX, sparked new “hyperloop” propulsion technologies that could soon see passenger and freight pods speeding across Australia’s east coast via low-pressure tubes.

And the US companies developing Mr Musk’s vision are eyeing the Melbourne-to-Sydney corridor as a potential testing ground.

Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One is one of the companies looking to explore the idea, according to vice president Alan James.

“Melbourne to Sydney is the third-busiest air corridor in the world and we can give you Melbourne downtown to Sydney downtown in 55 minutes,” he told The Australian.

“This is not a 10 years away story, this is not a five years away story, and literally months from now the world will be able to touch, smell and see an operational Hyperloop.”

Another leading developer, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), is also aiming to test the high-speed transportation concept in Australia.

“We’re trying to build the first full-scale Hyperloop in a country with a high-enough density of population, long distances and local infrastructure,” chief operating officer Bibop Gresta told ABC’s RN Drive.

Watch more on Hyperloop technology below:

“There are several options being analysed at the moment, and one of them is for sure Queensland.”

Hyperloop was originally envisioned as engineless, high-speed transportation of passengers and goods in tubes travelling in excess of 1000 km/h, but both companies have slightly different concepts for making this a reality.

Hyperloop One aims for a system that uses electric propulsion to accelerate a passenger or cargo vehicle through a tube in a low pressure environment.

HTT plans on delivering a vacuum system to transport pods powered by a combination of solar, wind and geothermal energy.

‘We may never see high-speed rail in our lifetime’

high-speed train

An artist’s illustration of what Hyperloop could look like Photo: Hyperloop One

This isn’t the first rail link to be promised in Australia’s sorry history of high-speed trains.

And not all experts are as optimistic of a fully operational high-speed rail from Sydney to Melbourne as the hyperloop companies.

“I think it’s unlikely in our lifetime,” the University of Canberra’s Dr Cameron Gordon said of the hyperloop proposals.

Consolidated Land and Rail Australia (CLARA) announced plans for a slightly slower trip using different technology in July.

The $200 billion nation-building infrastructure project aims to connect inland cities and would include the construction of eight new stations, as well as new platforms in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra.

high-speed train

CLARA’s high-speed train project. Source: TND

The first stage of the project was expected to start in about five years and be privately funded.

“It would easily take 10-20 years to actually get it up and running – best-case scenario,” Dr Gordon said.

“You’re probably really talking in terms of that network more like 50 years,” he said. “I think it’s unlikely in our lifetime.

“Who knows, things can shift, but even if we started today we’re talking 20 years to get it in proper service covering the whole route so that’s still a long time away.”

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