At speeds of over 1,000km/h, hyperloop can connect all Gulf cities within an hour from each other, Virgin Hyperloop One (VHO) said.

The system has zero direct emissions and could move close to 45 million passengers per year in the region leveraging solar panels which cover the tube, the world’s leading hyperloop company said in a statement.

Jay Walder, Chief Executive Officer at VHO, said: “We estimate that per passenger, hyperloop is 50 per cent more energy-efficient than high-speed rail and up to 10 times more than flying. As a result, all Gulf cities could be less than an hour away from each other, powered by a zero-emission network that is energy neutral and could be completely unplugged from the grid in the Middle East.” 

Walder is the former CEO of Hong Kong transit company MTR Corporation and New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

A hyperloop connection would see passengers travel the region at incredible speeds, cutting the travel time from Abu Dhabi to Jeddah to 48 minutes. According to VHO, passengers can travel between Dubai and Abu Dhabi on special pods at 1,200 kilometers per hour, which means a journey between both the cities will take only 12 minutes.

In October, Los Angeles-based and UAE's DP World-backed VHO announced the results of a study commissioned to build the world’s first extended test and certification hyperloop track in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  The Virgin Hyperloop One Center of Excellence (CoE), if approved, could create more than 124,000 high-tech local jobs and drive a $4billion increase in KSA GDP by 2030, according the study. 

In India, the Maharashtra government approved the Virgin Hyperloop One-led consortium’s plans to develop a high-speed line between Mumbai and Pune. VHO expects to transport 200 million passengers annually between the two cities. The current travel time of over 3.5 hours will be cut down to under 35 minutes.

VHO is presenting at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week’s headliner event, the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) to discuss what it will be like to travel in the 21st century. 

(Writing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@refinitiv.com , editing by Daniel Luiz)

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