Moving goods and humans from one place to another safely and fast has been the importance of have been the importance of transportation and thanks to advancement in technology, we now have more comfortable cars, faster jets, luxury boats and so on. With the emergence of electric cars and artificial intelligence, a lot in cars can now self-drive and run with just charging and this technological improvement is starting to extend to ships.
In this post I am not talking about electric self-driving cars, I am talking about comfort and speed in one of the land transportation which has been in existence for a very long time and that is Rail (Train). A lot of us have taking a ride on a train from one region to another and if we are to be honest old trains can be very slow and uncomfortable.
Brief History and Modernization of Trains
Trains have been existing since the last 200 years of human civilization in the early 1800s, with the advent of the steam train which first rolled over the railway of industrial England. From the steam locomotive train which burned coal to boil water into steam which is used to power the wheel of the train to diesel locomotive which used diesel to power the train and was faster compared to steam train, to freight train used to carry loads through long distances.
Technology advanced to electric train in the 19th century, then Japanese bullet train which travel at a speed of/ about 200 km/h, then high speed trains travelling at 350 km/h introduced in Spain, and the Shanghai metro train which overtook London underground train with a speed of 420km/h, it is serving as the world’s largest urban transit.
Hyperloop, the Future of Train
Two things slow down the movement of vehicles which are air resistance and friction. Hyperloop trains are going to solve this problems as the train will conquer air resistance using vacuum tube system and conquer friction by propelling pods using magnetic levitation.
source: hyperloop-one.com
The basis of the hyperloop train is very high speed transit system which is a combination of low pressure transit tube and magnetic electric levitation train and or air bearings for pod which allows the vehicle float above the track. The train can glide to the align speed for long distance due to ultra-low aerodynamics drag.
source: TransPod
You might wonder how fast this train can be, virgin hyperloop will be moving at 600mph while spaceX hyperloop will be moving at 700m/hr. Do not ask, Billionaire entrepreneurs Richard Branson and Elon Musk are at it full time with the Virgin hyperloop one and the SpeceX hyperloop pod respectively. Some other companies such as the US based start-up Hyperloop TT, Netherland Hardt Hyperloop, and Canadian Transpod.
Conclusion
Seeing the future of a fast, sustainable and environmental friendly train means a better life of humans. Each companies have been doing a lot of testing and have been showing their progress via press and social media campaign. Soon, people can travel from one country to another in about three hours. The only limitations which could delay the innovation is digging of tunnels and constructing vacuum tubes.