The Hyperloop System and Stakeholders: A Review and Future Directions

• Main Authors: Lambros Mitropoulos, Annie Kortsari, Alexandros Koliatos, Georgia Ayfantopoulou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-07-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: hyperloop; fifth mode; ultra-high speed; low-pressure; vacuum
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/15/8430

The hyperloop is an innovative land transport mode for passengers and freight that travels at ultra-high speeds. Lately, different stakeholders have been engaged in the research and development of hyperloop components. The novelty of the hyperloop necessitates certain directions to be followed toward the development and testing of its technological components as well the formation of regulations and planning processes. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive literature review of hyperloop publications to record the current state of progress of hyperloop components, including the pod, the infrastructure, and the communication system, and identify involved EU stakeholders. Blending this information results in future directions. An online search of English-based publications was performed to finally consider 107 studies on the hyperloop and identify 81 stakeholders in the EU. The analysis shows that the hyperloop-related activities are almost equally distributed between Europe (39%) and Asia (38%), and the majority of EU stakeholders are located in Spain (26%) and Germany (20%), work on the traction of the pod (37%) and the tube (28%), and study impacts including safety (35%), energy (33%), and cost (30%). Existing tube systems and testing facilities for the hyperloop lack full-scale tracks, which creates a hurdle for the testing and development of the hyperloop system. The presented analysis and findings provide a holistic assessment of the hyperloop system and its stakeholders and suggest future directions to develop a successful transport system.