Arabian Business – May 06, 2018

arabianbusiness.com 19

THE BIG STORY

and tubes as passengers, at night or at
off-peak hours, for example.
Importantly, Geiger notes that the
convenience and speed of hyperloop
travel – cutting travel from Riyadh to
Jeddah from 10 hours to 76 minutes,
for example – does not mean that is
will be prohibitively expensive.
“This is going to be a system for
everybody, not just the super-rich,” he
says. “[But] there will be a little bit of
premium that you pay because it’s so
fast. But it’s not something significantly
different than the ticket prices that
exist. The more people that ride
hyperloop, the lower the cost is for the
actual system, and the more goods that
travel on hyperloop, the lower the cost
for the system.”
Sir Richard Branson – the board
chairman of Virgin Hyperloop One

• noted that the system also has the
  potential to remove many of the
  hassles inherent in air travel, such as

by transporting passengers between

two airports in minutes, saving time by

avoiding traffic and without the need

to go through customs or immigration

again. “Suddenly, those two airports

effectively become one airport,” he

says. “All the misery of travel can be

taken away.”

A future without ports?

If Branson is right, the hyperloop

may even end up transforming – or

eliminating – ports themselves, freeing

up land for other kinds of developments.

“Ports are often sitting on valuable

land,” he says. ‘But a hyperloop could

be put on one of these lovely islands

created off Dubai, the freight could be

unloaded there, put on a hyperloop and

shipped 20 miles inland. All that port

land could be sold off for hotels, leisure.”

It is precisely this future that makes

hyperloop a technology that cannot be

overlooked by ports operators such as

DP World. “Today our role is not in the

port. Our role starts when the cargo

leaves the factory. We know that there

are a lot of inefficiencies in the supply

chain,” bin Sulayem says. “This is

disruptive innovation that we can’t

ignore. Our investment is in survival.” a

Evolution of

the hyperloop

2013

rElon Musk discusses his idea for

transport through low-pressure tubes

with venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar.

rMusk, at Pishevar’s urging, releases a

white paper outlining the plans in August.

2014

rShervin founds a hyperloop start-up

and starts building a team.

2015

rHyperloop One recruits former

Cisco president Rob Lloyd and raises

more than $11m in funding.

2016

rA live Propulsion System Open Air

(POAT) test is completed, validating the

design of the motor.

rIn August, DP World signs an agreement

to study a hyperloop route to improve

Jebel Ali Port’s effi ciency.

rDubai’s RTA agrees to evaluate a Hyperloop

One link between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

2017

rImages of the fi rst full-scale Hyperloop test

track are revealed at the Middle East Rail

event in Dubai.

rHyperloop One and Richard Branson’s

Virgin Group sign a strategic partnership.

2018

rSheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin

Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai,

helps unveil Virgin Hyperloop One’s Dubai

pod during Innovation Week.

rDP World and Virgin Hyperloop One

introduce DP World Cargospeed.

u The DP World Cargospeed system could travel at top speeds of 1,000kph

u Virgin Hyperloop One will enable ultra-fast,

on-demand deliveries of high-priority goods

Q WITH A BOLD VISION

FOR THE FUTURE, DUBAI

HAS ALWAYS PUSHED THE

BOUNDARIES OF INNOVATION”

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem,

DP World chairman