Russia's Transport Ministry is considering the Elon Musk-proposed Hyperloop concept to connect China with the Russian Far East and may propose the idea to Beijing.
"The Russia-China intergovernmental council will convene in a month. I will suggest that my counterpart consider this project, in particular in terms of investments," Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov told journalists, as reported by Russian TASS news agency.
According to TASS, the high-speed Hyperloop would potentially be between China and the port of Zarubino.
"Today we discussed this project with the company's leadership under the aegis of Elon Musk. We agreed that we would offer a project for developing the Primorye-2 corridor, a 70-kilomerter-long section between China and the Primorye territory with an exit to Zarubino port, to the company as a pilot project. Colleagues claim that the infrastructure will be cheaper than the railway: the cost of construction of a 70-kilometer-long railway may vary from 30 to 40 billion rubles [455.4-607.2 million U.S. dollars]," Sokolov said.
Sokolov noted that there is already a fund to support Silk Road projects, and that the hyperloop "may count on a 100 percent co-financing from this fund".
The Russian Ministry estimates the cost for this Hyperloop to be around $455-$607 million-just for the pilot section.
Invented by Elon Musk, the Hyperloop high-speed trains rely on technology that would represent the maximum speed for land transport in existence. Related: Saudi Aramco IPO, Not for BP
Musk's Hyperloop One recently announced that its first track test of Hyperloop technology was a success. The Hyperloop can travel close to 1,000 mph. The company was set up two years ago with the aim of turning into reality Elon Musk's vision of a superfast and affordable public transport network using magnetic propulsion in a near vacuum.
The crux of Musk's idea was a long, straight tube, almost completely evacuated, along which a transport pod will travel at high subsonic speeds. A journey from San Francisco to Los Angeles would take half an hour in such a pod at 760 mph or more.
By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com
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