Limoges in 30 minutes: the Hyperloop, a dead end for this train of the future?

The existence of the train in New Aquitaine is a little stormy… From the golden age of small lines to the era of all TGV, including the famous Capitole, NoA Histoire is interested in rail, and especially in the Hyperloop, a concept launched by Elon Musk and which is having difficulty establishing itself in Haute-Vienne.

The train has shaped our landscapes and also the organization between cities and countryside: the everyday train, the train to go on vacation, the train that we sometimes see passing without being able to get on… The train that no longer passes everything in our village, the TGV, the TER or the Intercité… there are things to tell about the history of rail!

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NoA Histoire tells you this epic story! That of the Hyperloop, which is causing a lot of ink to flow in Limousin, is told to you by Jean-Martial Jonquard.

To make it simple and not too complicated, you take a tube in which you create a vacuum, or at least, you establish a low pressure, to reduce friction as much as possible, and you insert a capsule into it, raised on a cushion of air or by electromagnetic levitation, a capsule that you propel using an equally electromagnetic field, via induction motors.

Theoretically, your capsule can then travel at more than 1,000 km/h, or, for example, a San Francisco-Los Angeles trip in almost half an hour.

If all this was studied by scientists during the 20th century, it was Elon Musk, the boss of X or Tesla, who, in 2013, really relaunched the idea. So much so that companies were created, and test projects were launched. All of this costs enormous sums of money and, at the beginning, we mainly stayed at the fundraising stage. But finally, it caught on.

And, in 2017, the Hyperloop reared its head in Limousin, when a Canadian company suggested that it could choose the region to come and do tests. Given the state of the POLT, given the absence of LGV, the prospect of a Paris-Limoges in half an hour or almost, there was something to salivate about.

At best, in a very long time, at worst, probably never.

There are good projects all over the world, but the first tests, carried out in 2016 in the Nevada desert in the United States, did not exceed 200 km/h.

Then, if there are indeed micro-projects, a Hyperloop would be more valid on a continental scale, or over long distances, than for leaps and bounds.

For many reasons, it probably could not be used for mass transport, it would more resemble a small private jet, so commercial exploitation is not obvious. Same for freight, it would be limited in weight.

So the test track, which was to be set up in Droux, in Haute-Vienne, is a bit “Anne, my sister Anne, don’t you see anything coming”. Already, from the initial three kilometers, we have come back to 300 meters, and if, at regular intervals, the company assures that it will happen, still nothing.

The Hyperloop could therefore experience the same fate as Jean Bertin’s skytrain, which has made people dream so much. A beautiful project, but which will remain a sweet dream…

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