It was supposed to change everything. We were told we’d be zipping from Los Angeles to San Francisco in about 35 minutes, sitting in a pressurized pod inside a vacuum tube. It sounded like science fiction because, frankly, it was. But when Elon Musk dropped his "Alpha Paper" back in 2013, people actually believed it. They leaned in. Investors threw hundreds of millions of dollars at a dream that promised to make high-speed rail look like a horse and buggy.
Fast forward to today. The dream is, well, mostly a pile of scrap metal and expensive lessons. If you're wondering what happened to Hyperloop, you aren't alone. It’s a story of incredible physics, massive egos, and the cold, hard reality of civil engineering that Silicon Valley somehow forgot to account for.
The Physics of a Vacuum
Basically, the Hyperloop concept relies on two main things: getting rid of air resistance and getting rid of friction. When a train moves, it fights the air in front of it. The faster it goes, the harder that air pushes back. By putting a pod in a tube and sucking out most of the air—creating a partial vacuum—you remove that wall.
Then you have friction. Traditional wheels on tracks create heat and drag. Hyperloop designs usually involve magnetic levitation (maglev) or air bearings to keep the pod hovering. In theory, you could hit speeds of 760 mph. That's transonic. It's faster than a commercial jet.
But here’s the thing. Building a vacuum chamber that is hundreds of miles long is a nightmare. Nature hates a vacuum. If a seal leaks or a tube cracks, the pressure differential is so violent it could crush the pod or cause a catastrophic failure. Engineers like Alon Levy have pointed out for years that the thermal expansion alone—how much the metal tubes grow and shrink in the sun—would be a mechanical disaster to manage over long distances.
Why Virgin Hyperloop Pivoted (And Then Failed)
The most famous player in this space was Virgin Hyperloop. They actually built a test track in the Nevada desert called DevLoop. It was 500 meters of white tube cutting through the sand. In 2020, they even put two humans in a pod—Josh Giegel and Sara Luchian—and shot them down the track. They hit 107 mph.
It was a cool stunt. But 107 mph is slower than a brightline train in Florida.
By 2022, the company made a shocking pivot. They laid off half their staff and announced they were abandoning passenger travel to focus on cargo. Moving boxes doesn't require life support systems or the same level of safety certifications. But even that didn't save them. By the end of 2023, Virgin Hyperloop (then known as Hyperloop One) officially shut down. They sold off the assets, cleared out the office, and the dream died in a liquidation sale.
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The reality is that "Hyperloop" became a buzzword that outpaced the actual math.
The Boring Company Distraction
We have to talk about Elon Musk's role in this. While he wrote the original white paper, he didn't actually start a Hyperloop company right away. He focused on SpaceX and Tesla, essentially "gifting" the idea to the world. Later, he started The Boring Company.
A lot of people confuse the two. If you go to Las Vegas today, you can ride in a "Loop." But it’s not a Hyperloop. It’s literally just a Tesla car driving through a paved tunnel with some RGB lights. There’s no vacuum. There’s no 700 mph speed. It’s a subterranean taxi lane.
Critics like Ricardo Franco have argued that the Hyperloop was never a serious project for Musk, but rather a way to try and disrupt the California High-Speed Rail project. Whether that's true or not, the result was the same: a lot of hype that sucked the oxygen out of the room for more proven transit solutions.
The Massive Cost Problem
Money talks. Usually, it screams.
High-speed rail is already famously expensive to build because of land acquisition. Now, imagine you have to build a perfectly straight, airtight steel tube on top of that. Estimates for the Hyperloop started at around $17 million per mile. Real-world analysis from leaked documents later suggested it would be closer to $100 million or even $121 million per mile.
At those prices, a ticket wouldn't cost $20 as originally promised. It would cost thousands. It’s a luxury toy, not a mass transit solution.
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Is Anyone Still Working on It?
It's not totally dead. Not quite. There are still a few entities trying to make Hyperloop a reality, mostly in Europe and China.
- Hardt Hyperloop: Based in the Netherlands, they are focusing on "lane switching" technology. They’ve managed to get some backing from the European Union.
- TransPod: A Canadian company that claims they can build a line between Calgary and Edmonton. They are looking at a "flux jet" system that is a hybrid between an aircraft and a train.
- China's T-Flight: The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) recently claimed they hit a record speed with a full-scale maglev train in a low-vacuum tube, though they didn't release the exact speed to the public immediately.
These projects are more academic and government-backed than the venture-capital-fueled frenzy we saw in California five years ago. They are moving at a glacial pace, which is ironic for a technology built on speed.
The Engineering Reality Check
Let's get real for a second. If you’re in a pod traveling at 700 mph and there is a tiny curve in the track, the G-forces would make passengers vomit. To keep the ride comfortable, the tubes have to be almost perfectly straight.
Think about the geography of the United States. Or Europe. Getting a straight line through mountains, over rivers, and through private property is a legal and geological nightmare. You can't just "disrupt" the Earth's crust.
What We Can Learn From the Hype
The Hyperloop saga teaches us a lot about the "gadgetbahn" phenomenon. This is a term used by transit experts to describe shiny, futuristic transportation ideas that serve as a distraction from boring, working solutions like buses, subways, and standard high-speed rail.
We love the idea of a silver bullet. We want the future to look like The Jetsons. But often, the best way to move people is the way we already know how—just funded better.
Real-World Next Steps
If you're interested in the future of transport, stop looking at vacuum tubes and start looking at these developments which are actually happening:
1. Watch the Maglev Progress in Japan
The Chuo Shinkansen is currently under construction. It uses L0 Series Maglev technology and has hit speeds of 374 mph in testing. It doesn't use a vacuum tube, proving you can get incredible speeds without the complexity of a pressurized pipe.
2. Follow the Brightline Model
In the US, Brightline has shown that private high-speed rail can work by using existing right-of-ways and focusing on "too short to fly, too long to drive" corridors like Miami to Orlando. This is the blueprint that is actually being scaled.
3. Look Into Micro-Mobility and Urban Density
The "last mile" problem is what actually kills commute times. Improving e-bike infrastructure and walkable city centers does more for the average person's daily life than a 700 mph tube that only connects two specific city centers.
The Hyperloop as Musk envisioned it in 2013 is likely never going to happen. The physics are too hard, the costs are too high, and the safety risks are too great for a public utility. But the research into linear induction motors and vacuum seals might eventually find a home in specialized cargo shipping or space launch systems.
For now, keep your feet on the ground. The future of travel is probably going to be on tracks, but they’ll be the kind we can actually build today.