This time, it really is the end of the tunnel. Arriving with great fanfare in 2017, on the 38 hectares of the former Toulouse-Francazal military base, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HyperloopTT) is now packing its bags for Venice. The Californian company promised to run a train at more than 1,000 kilometers per hour, levitating in a long tunnel, thanks to the principle of magnetic levitation. It was Elon Musk, then director of SpaceX, who launched, in 2012, an open patent competition for this technology, supposed to revolutionize land transport.
Friday February 23, Andres de Leon, CEO of HyperloopTT, announced that the company “will open new offices outside of Venice, with additional operations near long-standing research partner, the Polytechnic of Turin, and alongside Hyperloop Italia’s office in Puglia.”
According to him, HyperloopTT won, in June 2023, a call for tenders launched by Concessioni Autostradali Venete, the Italian regional road operator, which provides for the study and design of a prototype on a section between Venice-Mestre and Padua . “A larger test site, called “Hyper Transfer”, to transport cargo and passengers, which could support the dozens of kilometers necessary to achieve our objectivesspecifies Andres de Leon. HyperloopTT contributed of millions of dollars to the local economy of Toulouse. »
“It never exceeded ten agents »
In Toulouse, the relationship between the communities and the brains of Silicon Valley actually turned out to be chaotic. At the time, with the support of a large local communications agency, the support of Toulouse Métropole and the Occitanie region, these former NASA or Boeing employees promised “first full-scale tests in 2020”.
These tests never took place. Only a 300 meter long tube housed a capsule, kept secret. “It never exceeded ten agents »lamented to the Worldin July 2023, Albert Sanchez, mayor (various left) of Cugnaux, town where a good part of the Francazal base is located.
To accommodate this supersonic train, the site had been decontaminated – for more than 400,000 euros – and the rent granted amounted to around 80,000 euros per year, a very advantageous rate for 2 hectares.
In his always emphatic communication, the CEO of HyperloopTT also wants to “thank the mayor, the authorities and the community of Toulouse for their support over the last few years.” “Although our progress has not always been steady, we have always moved forward », he said.
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