A hyperloop track—able to transport passengers at speeds as high as 760 miles per hour—could be operational and open to the public in three years.
A company developing the high-speed transportation has filed permits to begin construction in Quay Valley, Calif., where it plans to build a five-mile track. That track will be operational by 2018, Bibop Gresta, the chief operating officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, said at a CNBC/TradeShift event at Davos on Thursday.
The hyperloop, an idea first publicized by Elon Musk, uses magnets to propel passengers in pods through a tube. Though Musk is credited with inventing the form of transportation, neither he nor his company Space X are involved with the companies making the idea a reality.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies plans to break ground in mid-2016. “After over two and a half years of research and development our team has reached another important milestone. This will be the world’s first passenger-ready Hyperloop system,” said Dirk Ahlborn, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies’ CEO, in a statement to The Verge. “Everyone traveling on California’s I-5 in 2016 will be able to see our activities from the freeway.”
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies closed the deal with local Quay Valley landowners to construct the track back in May.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is competing with another company, Hyperloop Technologies, to construct the first track. Hyperloop Technologies recently bought 50 acres of land in North Las Vegas for its own test track. That track is supposed to be constructed by the first quarter of 2016, The Verge reported.