er018 SYSTRA wins contract in India with Virgin Hyperloop One SYSTRA has won a contract with Virgin Hyperloop One (VH1) to provide engineering consultancy services, culminating in a feasibility study for a 140km Hyperloop corridor between Mumbai and the city of Pune. The line would allow a journey time of under 30 minutes. The project includes a transport planning & demand forecast, alignment design, a civil works study and environmental impact scoping, and is divided into two phases. Phase 1 involves a 10-15km section of the proposed line intended to serve as an operational demonstration track to enable testing as well as safety and regulatory approvals. This phase will include two stations - for which the locations will be determined through a technical evaluation process and stakeholder discussions - as well as a depot and ramps connecting the stations to the main alignment. The team is also studying options where the demonstration track would not form a part of the full route. Phase 2 will connect Mumbai city centre (Dadar, Bandra Kurla Complex and other options) to Pune for a total length of around 140km. It will also include an intermediate station at the new Navi Mumbai International Airport. Services between Mumbai and Pune will be point-to-point pods so will not stop at the airport. Most of the alignment, regardless of the selected option, is expected to run parallel to the existing expressway that connects Mumbai and Pune. The design will aim to improve the curvatures to minimise speed restrictions. The design speed will generally be 100m/s (360km/h) but in sections that might support higher potential speeds of up to 200m/s (720km/h), the designs will be finalised through discussion with VH1. Teams in India will work closely with experts from the operational security, architecture and innovation departments in the Technical Directorate (DTE) in Paris.The current study is one of the first of its kind in the world as Hyperloop technology is yet to be implemented in practice. India is one of the few countries to launch a feasibility study for the construction of an operational demonstration track. As guidelines are being developed by VH1 for infrastructure design, this project represents a unique opportunity for our teams to work closely with VH1 to develop detailed infrastructure requirements. With the technology still being developed, one of the biggest challenges is to correctly ascertain all the interfaces with civil systems and account for them in the feasibility design. The station at Navi Mumbai International Airport is forecast to handle over 60 million passengers annually by 2031. The Hyperloop system could enable rapid, convenient connections to the airport for people departing from or going to Mumbai or Pune. It would create a multi-modal transportation network that might play a significant role in supporting the regional economy and the international competitiveness of the airport. In addition, the Hyperloop-enabled ground transportation network could lead to innovations such as off-site check-in and security that will help increase airport capacity. Speaking about this ambitious new project, Hari Somalraju, Managing Director of SYSTRA in India, commented: ‘Transportation is a major issue in India and we need to consider as many alternatives as possible when it comes to mobility. Hyperloop is one of those possibilities and we believe that we have the technical expertise and ability to overcome the many challenges that such a project involves, not least in finding solutions to the key issues of cost, safety and capacity.