The Hyperloop Essay: A Revolutionary Concept For High Speed Transportation.

Discuss about the Beneficial for Passengers or Commercial Purposes.

The Hyperloop is a novel technology, which refers to the high speed transportation between different cities. The technology use capsule-like vehicles, which run on guided fixed ways in sealed vacuum tubes. The capacity of each tube is 28 people and the people can travel between locations outside cities with this technology. They have to use different transportation mediums to travel to their actual destination. It can reduce the commutation time by a significant amount (Werner, Eißing & Langton, 2016). This technology is at initial stage; however, researchers and scientific community have high expectations with this technology. However, Hyperloop has high value potential for passenger and freight travel.

The hyperloop technology is a novel technology, which can assist the daily commuters in a significant manner. In this regard, the research questions can be formed as:

• Is there any commercial viability of Hyperloop technology?
• How can the cost of Hyperloop transportation system be reduced?
• What are the practical implications of implementing the Hyperloop technology?

The aims and objectives of the research are:

• To analyze the commercial viability of Hyperloop technology for passenger and foreign transportation
• To analyze the cost of implementation of Hyperloop system
• To analyze the benefits and drawbacks of Hyperloop system

In the perspective of Taylor, Hyde, & Barr (2016) the HyperLoop technology has garnered the attention of international scientific community as it can offer fast speed, which is much higher than the existing form of passenger travel. However, the biggest concern is that the company offers the service at a low cost. The expected speed of Hyperloop is higher than other fast transportation mediums such as air, maglev and HSR. There is an issue with all these technology that there stations are at the outskirts of the city and the passengers are required to travel additional time to reach their actual decisions. However, there is challenge that the high speed of Hyperloop might be appropriate for the passengers. Travelling at a high speed can significantly impact the health of the passengers. Further, special attention should be given to the development of routes so that the consumers do not experience gravitational forces at turns. If the route developers do not focus on the direction of the routes, the customers might not prefer travelling through Hyperloop, which might impact the commercial viability of the trains.

In the perspective of Pandey & Pallissery (n.d.) the financial investment in developing the infrastructure and tubes for the train will be very high. Therefore, it is important that the research community establish a core competency for the technology, which differentiates it from other technologies.  The proponents of technology have claimed that since the system is enclosed in a tube, the external climate or weather will not affect the system. However, maglev trains are also resilient to external weather. Further, Hyperloop capacity is also lower than HSR and maglev. However, the proponents of technology can increase the capacity of the organization by developing pods, which are higher in size or stacking one and more tubes with each other.

Aims and Objectives

According to ??????? & ???????? (2017) although Hyperloop offers the benefit of fast speed, there are certain advantages of other systems such as several numbers of stations and proximity to highly populated areas, which might discourage the companies from using these services.

In the views of Nemchenko & Boyarskaya (2017) the hyperloop transportation can be used for two main purposes, namely, commercial passenger transportation and freight transportation. The scientific community is also focusing on cargo as it is less risky to experiment the technology in cargo freight. However, it is forecasted that only a very small amount of commercial enterprises will be attracted towards this technology and they will comprise only those people, who are currently using air transportation for freight. However, the air transportation is mature and fairly developed so that it can collect parcels from different locations and distribute them to different locations. Therefore, to government and the commercial organizations have to make a heavy investment, if they want to implement a transportation system for the commercial organizations.  Further, the freight transportation between different countries is only available through water and air mediums. Therefore, there is need of an additional transportation medium, which can be used for transportation at high speed. High speed between the different stations will result in higher throughput for each tube.

According to González-González & Nogués (n.d.), several researchers are also focusing on putting the hyperloop tubes underwater, so that the cost related to purchase of land can be reduced. Underwater transportation also assures that uninterrupted transportation can be achieved between different countries. This technology can be integrated with the existing ports to expand the capacity of the ports.

In the views of Rachid, Hamdan, Elias, Al Ajaji & Arafa (2016), hypoerloop is an innovative technology, which can be integrated with other technologies to enhance the capabilities. The hyperloop can be supported by the solar technology, which can reduce the environmental impact of the technology. It will be a unique competitive advantage of the technology, as air travel, maglev and HSR, all are powered by solar technology. However, it needs further research regarding the amount of solar enrgy required for operating hyperloop. Since it is recently developed, the routes can be customized so that they can become more energy efficient.

According to Van Goeverden, Milakis & Janic, (2017) the biggest issue in hyperloop transportation is the passenger comfort. While travelling at high speed, customers will experience nausea and sickness. When the customers are travelling at very high speed at hills or curves, high gravitational force will be exerted on the passengers, which will make the whole experience phenomenal. There is also another issue of hyperloop firms related to noise. It means that the lack of restrooms is also another major issue in hyperloop. However, if the duration of trip is less than one hour, it will not be a problem for the public. The hyperloop transportation should be comfortable with sufficient space for leg room, ability to walk and relax. Hyperloop technology has several advantages, such as resilience to the weather conditions, which can impact the air and the rail travel. In the perspective of Janic (2014), there is also another issue of system resilience wherein, the repairs in a tube can halt the operations of the system. The redundancy of the system can also impact other tubes, which can result in significant halt in the operations of the system. The repairs may require several changes, which can impact the operations of the transportation system. It may require changes in the pressure level so that the workers can operate in a proper manner. Further, if the repairs are external, the operations of whole system might be halted so that there is no external disturbance in the system. In contrast to it, in rail and maglev system, the vehicle can switch between different tracks in case of track maintenance. In transportation, there is no hassle of maintenance of air way.

Advantages of the Hyperloop Technology

According to International Transport Forum (2017), in other modes of transportation, there is freedom to select one single vehicle and replace it or repair it with others; however, in hyperloop, the transportation service has several small pods operating simultaneously. Therefore, taking out one small pod will have negative impact on the transient of service and maintenance.

In the perspective of Varga, Iclodean, & Mariasiu (2016) another drawback of the system is the interoperability with different systems. Hyperloop operates in unique environment, which differentiates it from other mode of transportation. It is a significant challenge in the countries, in which the land acquisition cost is comparatively high. It will also invite resistance by the communities and not-for-profit organizations as they will resist the infrastructural products, which will not be beneficial for the host communities.

In the views of Wadhwa, & Salkever (2017), Hyperloop will be a unique system, which will be completely automated. It means that there will be no requirement of pilot, driver and engineer. The Hyperloop will provide safety benefits from the removal of the human errors. It safety and robustness of the system will also be increased as the system will be completely removed from external interferences. There will be no interaction with the outside world, which will increase the reliability and safety of hyperloop transportation system.

In the perspective of Varga, Iclodean, & Mariasiu (2016) there are several challenges in the successful implementation of hyperloop technology such as at longer distance, the construction cost of the guideway will be very high, which will not provide any cost-effectiveness at large distance whereas in short trips, there will be very less time saving.

There has been significant research in the commuter market and the potential applications of the transportation services. When the service will link the transit network with the low housing cost, it may increase the employment opportunities for the customers. It can be used to link the high housing prices to high speed low-cost services. It can serve different customers or travelers. The travelers can reside at cheap cities and find employment at cities with high employment opportunities

The infrastructure implementation cost of Hyperloop is less than the traditional mediums of rail and maglev system.  The system will operate at a certain height above the ground level. Therefore, by constructing only an elevated system on pylons, the builder can establish a system by only buying the air rights of the land acquisition.

Financial Investment

According to Van Goeverden, Milakis & Janic, (2017) in addition to the infrastructure cost, there are other parts of cost, such as operating cost, which will increase the overall cost to the organization. The operational and maintenance cost will significantly contribute to the overall cost to the organization. There should be significant amount of ridership and fare recovery, which can cover overall cost to the organization. The labor cost and the size of the operator staff can also be analyzed through overhead cost. The daily management, dispatching and system control is additional cost, which will increase the overall cost to the organization. Although the operations of the system is highly automated, significant level of human supervision and control is required. The day to day system of the organization requires dispatching the vehicle, security and maintenance. In addition, there will be cost associated with the management of the system, strategic planning, IT services and business development of the system. The total cost will also include the operating cost of the stations. The system will also include e-ticketing system. The labor cost will also include safety and security personnel, customer service and cleaning assistance. The system will also need to provide additional facilities and utilities such as drinking water, restroom, ground transportation and customer amenities

The research methodology outlines different methods and techniques, which can be used to gather data from different resources. It provides direction to the researcher and guides him regarding how to complete the research. In the present, the research paradigm of interpretivism is taken. In this research paradigm, the researcher is not considered separate from the research study. The research paradigm states that the researcher interprets the meaning of the social phenomenon and used it in the research. The research approach provides the direction to the research study. There are two types of research approach, namely, inductive and deductive research approach (Bernard, 2011). In the inductive research approach, the researcher tries to explore new information related to the research subject. In the deductive research approach, the researcher tries to establish the link between two different variables. It is also used to validate a previous research (Panneerselvam, 2014). In the present, inductive approach will be taken as the research is about exploring new information about hyperloop and its commercial viability.

There are three types of research, namely, descriptive research exploratory research and explanatory research. In the present, exploratory research will be conducted as the researcher is focused on exploring novel information about the technology. In the present, the research on the hyperloop technology is minimal. The primary research will be used to analyze the information on the research topic. The researcher will use interview method to obtain the information (Smith, 2017). The interview will be conducted through five experts in the technology. The interview will be conducted with the scholars and researchers in the hyperloop technology. The interview will be conducted through skype for convenience of both researcher and the interview participants. The researcher will analyze the secondary data related to the research through secondary research sources, including books and journal articles. There are two types of data collecting methods, primary and secondary. In primary data collection, raw, first-hand data are collected from the participants of the research. In case of secondary data, second had data from online or printed materials are collected (Williamson & Johanson, 2017). In this research study, the researcher will use a mixed method that is both primary and secondary data will be collected.

Passenger Comfort

In order to collect the data, the researcher has to conduct interviews; therefore, the research is based on human participants. The researcher will follow Data Protection Act 1988, where it is mentioned that the researcher will not deviate from any ethical norms. The researcher will not disclose any name of the interview participants and the sole purpose of the data collection is only completing the research. The confidentiality of the respondents will be maintained thoroughly (Tracy, 2012). The researcher ensures that the respondents of the research will be aware of the purpose of research. In addition, all the data will be destroyed once the research will be done. Any kind of coercion or transaction of money will be forbidden during collection of data.        

The research will yield information about the commercial application of the hyperloop technology. It will yield information related to the various factors, which can increase the cost of the organization. Further, the research will also provide results regarding the infrastructure requirements in new technology.

The research timeline is an important aspect of the research. The researcher will follow the timeline to complete the research on time.

The timescale of the current research is mentioned as under:

References

Bernard, H.R. (2011). Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Rowman Altamira.

González-González, E., & Nogués, S. RAILWAYS OF THE FUTURE: EVOLUTION AND PROSPECTS OF HIGH-SPEED RAIL, MAGLEV AND HYPERLOOP (1 ST PART).

International Transport Forum. (2017). ITF Transport Outlook 2017. OECD Publishing

Janic, M. (2014). Advanced Transport Systems: Analysis, Modeling, and Evaluation of Performances. Springer Science & Business Media.

Nemchenko, A., & Boyarskaya, A. (2017). The Hyperloop High-Speed Train.

Pandey, V., & Pallissery, S. S. Hyperloop, Train of Future.

Panneerselvam, R. (2014). RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.

Rachid, E., Hamdan, A., Elias, M., Al Ajaji, L., & Arafa, T. (2016). Implementation of the Hyperloop in the UAE Eilin.

Smith, M.F. (2017). Research Methods in Sport. Learning Matters.

Taylor, C. L., Hyde, D. J., & Barr, L. C. (2016). Hyperloop Commercial Feasibility Analysis. John A. Volpe National Transportation System Center.

Tracy, R. (2012). A Survival Guide For Health Research Methods. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

Van Goeverden, C. D., Milakis, D., & Janic, M. (2017). Performances of the HL (Hyperloop) transport system. 2017 BIVEC-GIBET Transport Research Days.

Varga, O., Iclodean, C., & Mariasiu, F. (2016). Electric and Hybrid Buses for Urban Transport: Energy Efficiency Strategies. Springer.

Wadhwa, V., & Salkever, A. (2017). The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Werner, M., Eißing, K., & Langton, S. (2016). Shared value potential of transporting cargo via hyperloop. Frontiers in built environment, 2, 17.

Williamson, K., & Johanson, G. (2017). Research Methods: Information, Systems, and Contexts. Chandos Publishing.

???????, ?. ?., & ????????, ?. ?. (2017). FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES IN MODERN LIFE. ???????????? ????????, 91.