Toronto-based TransPod, a startup dedicated to creating a hyperloop system, has entered an international agreement with several European hyperloop companies to work towards standardizing and implementing hyperloop travel systems.
The partnership — between TransPod, Netherlands-based Hardt Hyperloop, Spain-based Zeleros Hyperloop, and Poland-based Hyper Poland — was created to define, establish, and standardize the methodology and framework to regulate hyperloop travel systems. The partnership is open to industry executives, research institutes, regulatory bodies, and governments who are interested in discussing and researching policies around hyperloop systems.
“We’re working with other leaders who are passionate about re-imagining and improving the way we live and work.”
“The future of vacuum-based transportation is predicated on its ability to virtually shrink distances and create a much more interconnected economy and true global community,” said Sebastian Gendron, co-founder and CEO of TransPod. “We’re working with other leaders who are passionate about re-imagining and improving the way we live and work, to ensure we don’t develop this new technology in silos, but rather through a cooperative effort to ensure high levels of safety and interoperability.”
In November 2016, TransPod secured $20 million in seed funding from Italy-based Angelo Investments to continue supporting its efforts to create a hyperloop. In July 2017, the company released the findings of its Initial Order of Magnitude Analysis, which revealed that a TransPod hyperloop system will cost 50 per cent less than the projected cost of a high-speed rail line along the same route.
“Breakthrough transportation solutions like hyperloop require broad support from both private and public sectors to be adopted,” said Mars Geuze, co-founder and CCO of Hardt hyperloop. “In the last year we have seen industry leaders joining the hyperloop development. They see the same worldwide challenges and have showed the courage to not lay back but to act. We invite everyone to join the movement to make the hyperloop a reality.”