The U.S. company Hyperloop is planning to construct a “new Silk Road” passing through Russia, the Reuters news agency reported Tuesday.
Hyperloop co-founder and executive chairman Shervin Pishevar said in a press release that the road would be used to delivering cargo from Europe to China.
Pishevar attended the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum last week to sign a cooperation deal with Moscow authorities and the Summa Group, a company which invests in infrastructure projects. Moscow officials are planning to use Hyperloop technology to build new transport links between the city’s airports, and the capital’s center and rapidly expanding suburbs.
"Hyperloop can improve life dramatically for the 16 million people in the greater Moscow area, cutting their commute to a fraction of what it is today," Pishevar said in a press release.
The Hyperloop system - a project based on the ideas of tech billionaire Elon Musk – is designed to propel futuristic carriages carrying passengers or cargo on cushions of air. The trains would work in a system of airless tunnels, potentially reaching at speeds of up to 1,200 kilometers per hour. Tests began in the United States in May.
The Vedomosti newspaper reported last month that Russia’s state railway company had set up a working group to study the possibility of using Hyperloop technology.
Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov also announced that Russia was developing its own version of the Hyperloop system, the RBC news website reported.
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