Dirk Ahlborn, CEO and Co-Founder of Hyperloop Transportation, was interviewed live by Matt Bird, Host of the Traders Network Show at the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

HIGHLIGHTS

• Hyperloop formed in 2013 to develop novel transportation system
• Hyperloop is developing high speed trains in sealed transportation systems 
• 900,000 new jobs could. Be created as a result of bringing this to the US

(ESG News) – In a hyperloop capsule, up to 50 passengers can travel at nearly the speed of sound. Yet regulations and funding that enable the development and implementation of such infrastructure tend to move at more of a glacial pace. 

Dirk Ahlborn, the founder and cochairman of HyperloopTT, is hoping that changes, especially in the U.S. Ahlborn spoke to Matt Bird, host of the Traders Network Show, at the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. At the time of the interview, HyperloopTT had just received good news from a third-party feasibility study about the super-speed transit system’s economic and environmental benefit to the Great Lakes region. The company was also moving toward implementing a prototype system in Abu Dhabi.

Ahlborn said a hyperloop system in the U.S. could lead to 900,000 jobs and property value increases along the corridor.

“But most importantly it really confirms that the system makes economic sense,” Ahlborn said. That’s, in part, because the system, which features pressurized capsules that float on frictionless magnetic cushions within tubes, requires low operational costs, he said.  

More than a year after the interview, infrastructure was getting new attention in the U.S., thanks to the $1 trillion infrastructure bill. Perhaps that’ll mean good news for innovators like HyperloopTT.

“In the U.S., we don’t have the best infrastructure,” Ahlborn said. “The hyperloop is a completely new class of infrastructure.”