[News Terms] Seoul~Busan in 20 Minutes, 'Hyperloop'

Earlier this month, Chinese researchers reported setting a new record in the speed of a superconducting magnetic levitation high-speed train through Hyperloop testing. China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) successfully levitated and moved a maglev train stably inside a low-pressure vacuum tube using a full-scale 2 km test track completed in November last year. Recently, they announced experimental results surpassing the previous highest speed. Although the exact speed was not disclosed, China Central Television (CCTV) previously reported in October last year that Chinese researchers succeeded in operating a high-speed maglev train at a maximum speed of 623 km/h under non-vacuum conditions, so the new speed is presumed to be even faster.

An artist's rendering of the Hyperloop by Dutch company Hart Hyperloop.

Hyperloop is a capsule-type high-speed train system proposed in 2013 by Elon Musk, the founder of the American electric car company Tesla Motors and SpaceX. The system involves a capsule-shaped train gliding inside a vacuum tube where there is no air friction. According to the design unveiled by Musk in January 2015, the Hyperloop train carries 28 passengers and travels through a cylindrical tunnel 3.5 meters in diameter at a top speed of 1,200 km/h. Considering that current passenger planes operate at about 900 km/h, high-speed trains at 300 km/h, and cars at around 100 km/h, this speed is extraordinarily fast. It would take only 35 minutes to travel approximately 560 km from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and less than 20 minutes to cover the 350 km straight-line distance from Seoul to Busan.

The principle behind achieving such high speeds lies in operating the train inside a vacuum tube to minimize air resistance and friction. Like maglev trains, the train runs slightly levitated above the track to reduce friction. The power required for train operation is supplied by solar panels installed on top of the vacuum tube. Since the Hyperloop moves inside a vacuum tube, it produces no noise or carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and is not affected by weather conditions such as fog or typhoons. The energy consumed per passenger per kilometer is about 8% of that of air travel and 35% of that of high-speed rail, making transportation costs relatively low.

In May 2017, Virgin Hyperloop One, a company developing supersonic maglev trains, succeeded in its first test run by traveling 96 meters at a top speed of 111 km/h in the Nevada desert. In 2019, the company increased the speed to 386 km/h over a 536-meter distance. In November 2020, it also succeeded in its first manned test run at 172 km/h but failed to achieve further progress and declared bankruptcy at the end of last year.

In South Korea, development is ongoing, with the Korea Railroad Research Institute achieving a speed of 1,019 km/h through a HyperTube (HTX) model experiment in November 2020. POSCO International entered the business in 2022 by signing a business agreement with the Dutch company Hardt Hyperloop and plans to supply dedicated Hyperloop steel materials for additional pilot projects of the European Hyperloop Center (EHC) within the European Union (EU) this year.