cross pond high tech

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has delivered the first tubes to its research center in the southwest of France as it begins construction on its first Hyperloop network to carry people and freight.

The company expects to complete a 320-meter system that will go into operation later this year, and it will build out another 1-km network in 2019.

HyperloopTT announced last year that it was opening a European research center in Toulouse, France. Toulouse is the country’s fourth-largest city but also home to a number of transportation and aerospace giants, including Airbus. HyperloopTT began moving the tubes in yesterday, which created a buzz among spectators and local press.

“Five years ago, we set out to solve transportation’s most pressing problems: efficiency, comfort, and speed. Today, we take an important step forward to begin to achieve that goal,” said HyperloopTT CEO Dirk Ahlborn in a statement. “Hyperloop is more than just displays of rapid acceleration and more than just breaking speed records. The real opportunity is to create an efficient and safe system with an unparalleled passenger experience.”

Founded in 2013, HyperloopTT now has a team of 800 engineers and 40 corporate and university partners. The company is based in Los Angeles and uses an open collaboration model. People can “join” HTT and be compensated for their work with stock options. So far, HTT has raised $31.8 million, and it had 30 salaried employees as of last year.

In addition to Toulouse, the company has offices in several regions around the world where it has signed agreements for development and trial of Hyperloop systems.

The tubes being installed in Toulouse have a diameter of 4.0 meters, which means the system can be adapted for both passenger pods and shipping containers. The company hopes to have the passenger capsule — which is being built in Carbures, Spain — later this summer.

Hyperloop One just struck a major deal with Richard Branson's Virgin Group.

Virgin Group announced Thursday that it has invested in Hyperloop One, a startup that's working on constructing the high-speed transit system Elon Musk first outlined in a white paper in 2013. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but the investment was significant enough that Hyperloop One will now be called Virgin Hyperloop.

"After visiting Hyperloop One’s test site in Nevada and meeting its leadership team this past summer, I am convinced this groundbreaking technology will change transportation as we know it and dramatically cut journey times," Virgin Group founder Richard Branson said in a press release.