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INCREDIBLE plans to build the world’s fastest train, capable of whisking passengers across a country at 621mph, have been unveiled.
The ambitious project will connect two major cities with a £14billion highspeed floating train system “before 2035”.
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Canadian startup TransPod has been working on the 300-kilometre passenger and light freight line, dubbed FluxJet, between Calgary and Edmonton for several years.
The fully-electric vehicle, described by TransPod as “a hybrid between an aircraft and a train”, will be able to facilitate up to 54 passengers and 10 tonnes of cargo.
A scaled-down one-tonne prototype of the vacuum train was debuted in Toronto in 2022.
FluxJet employs physics-based technology for high-speed propulsion through a vacuum-sealed tube.
Much like the Hyperloop network, which could see passengers shot through a tube at speeds of 700mph by 2030, it is comprised of only a train and a vacuum – rather than a train, rail, and tunnels.
The train hovers magnetically along the rail and uses a combination of magnets and plasma technology to achieve speeds of more than 621mph – which is faster than a jet and three times as fast as a high-speed train.
Currently, the highest speed on record is 357 mph – which the French V150 train realised in 2007.
Most trains in the UK are only able to reach top speeds of 140mph.
The FluxJet pods should be able to move with greater freedom, and thus achieve higher speeds, due to a lack of friction in the tube.
Without applying force to resist drag, less energy is required to propel the pods.
TransPod has previously indicated the FluxJet will travel along its dedicated tube system across Canada – the TransPod line – and have stations in key locations and major cities.
Pods will depart every two minutes.
The system is expected to take almost a third of the traffic from the highway which joins Calgary to Edmonton.
Riding the FluxJet will, according to TransPod, be 44 per cent cheaper than flying by plane and reduce CO2 emissions by about 636,000 tonnes per year.
Virgin’s Hyperloop chief Josh Giegel once said Hyperloop systems will be able to move as many people as a 30-lane highway between cities in minutes.
He also revealed what one can expect from riding inside one of the pods after taking part in a test run at a Virgin facility in Nevada in 2020: “The acceleration was similar to a sportscar, and we were giddy.
“The biggest piece of that test was that the world saw two people get on a hyperloop, and saw two people get off.
“Until that moment, everyone wondered ‘Could it be safe for people?’ Now we know that it is.”
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