Pieces fall into place for new Hyperloop test track in France

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies plans to hold a public unveiling of the Toulouse facility sometime later in 2018.

While there are a number startups vying to build the Hyperloop, a transport system that would see passenger and cargo pods shuttled through near-vacuum tubes at around the speed of sound, HTT and competitor Virgin Hyperloop One are the two generating the most buzz.

For the latter, that has come through building a test track and firing its full-scale prototypes through the tube at increasingly faster speeds. But for HTT, that has mostly meant making agreements with governments from US states to South Korea, from India to Slovakia, to study the feasibility of a Hyperloop system, with little tangible progress to show for itself (save for some flashy renderings and promo videos).

Virgin Hyperloop One shows off a passenger pod in Dubai

Nick Lavars  1 Mar 2018

Back in 2015, the company announced plans to build a passenger track in California, although that is yet to materialise. The new track planned for Toulouse does seem to be the real deal, however, with images and video shared by HTT showing a truck carting pieces of tube into the facility.

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