Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HyperloopTT)‚ a company developing ‘the next generation of sustainable high-speed travel’, is moving the company’s research and development centre in Toulouse, France to Italy, where it will open new offices outside Venice, with additional operations at HyperloopTT’s long-time research partner the Polytechnic of Turin and Hyperloop Italia’s office in Puglia.

The capsules, vacuum pumps, control centre, and levitation and propulsion systems will all be transported to Italy. HyperloopTT personnel local to Toulouse will continue to work on Hyper Transfer and other projects.

Since opening the Toulouse facility at Francazal airport in 2017, HyperloopTT has contributed millions of dollars to the local Toulouse economy, hosted global transportation leaders from the US Department of Transportation, European Commission, and Italy’s Hyper Transfer Consortium. The company has also achieved many critical testing milestones, including: constructing a 320m test track with full-scale tubes and pylons; depressurisation of the track to a pressure lower than 0,1mbar; repressurisation systems with electropneumatic valves on the tube; tube air leakage and energy measurement to adjust and maintain the low pressure; propulsion control test using small-scale embedded magnets with a full-scale Linear Synchronous Motor (LSM) and associated power electronics; magnetic levitation tests; and linear motor heat dissipation test in a vacuum test bench.

Hyperloop TT has also undertaken: the development of an operations control centre (OCC) with human-machine interfaces (HMIs) to control tests directly linked to a safety-certified controller, for integration with partner systems; and integrated a traffic management system developed in partnership with Hitachi Rail. All these milestones were achieved working with over 20 local and regional companies, universities, and other organisations.

Andrés de León, HyperloopTT’s CEO said: “We want to thank the Mayor, authorities, and community of Toulouse for their support over the past few years. While our progress has not always been consistent, it has always been forward. It became clear to us a few years into our development that the land required to take the next steps with hyperloop certification could not be met at Francazal and so we began searching for a bigger test site that could support the tens of kilometres needed to achieve our goals. We would not be where we are today, including signing the world’s first commercial hyperloop system contract with Italy, without the important groundwork we achieved in Toulouse.”

HyperloopTT began the dismantling of the company’s first track in Toulouse in February and expects to complete the move to Italy within the next five months.