Hyperloop Transportation Technologies to Break Ground on Test Track

by Rod D. Martin
January 20, 2016

The Hyperloop just took another big step toward reality.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) announced plans late last year to construct a 5-mile test trackin Quay Valley, California. Techcrunch reported this week that the company is about to break ground on the initial framework for what HTT CEO Dirk Ahlborn hopes will transform the U.S. transportation infrastructure.

"After over two and a half years of research and development our team has reached another important milestone. This will be the world's first passenger-ready Hyperloop system," Ahlborn said in a statement. "Everyone traveling on California's I-5 in 2016 will be able to see our activities from the freeway."

Hyperloop promises to reduce travel time between San Francisco to Los Angeles to right at 30 minutes each way.

First proposed by Elon Musk in 2013, the Hyperloop is an advanced vacuum tube intended for just-under-Mach-One intercity transport, dramatically faster than the speediest a…