Hyperloop One and port operator DP World have this week agreed to fund a feasibility study into the costs and benefits of using the vacuum-tube maglev technology to improve freight handling at Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port.
The study look at the engineering and business case for building a Hyperloop to take containers off ships at Jebel Ali and transport them to an as-yet unbuilt inland depot.
Peter Diamandis, a board member of Hyperloop One, said: "By having a system where a box can be taken off a ship and dropped into the tube or pod, we are moving activity that would otherwise be on the island terminal as well as reducing the size of the terminal you need to build."
Hyperloop One, one of two American companies that are hoping to exploit the technology, says a Hyperloop could take trucks off roads.
DP World says it could also foresee using a "submerged floating Hyperloop" located next to a terminal built on a man-made island.
In June, Hyperloop One announced a partnership with the City of Moscow and a local company called Summa Group to explore a Russian system.
The government of Russia has also announced a desire to build a 70km Hyperloop line on its Pacific Coast to link the port of Zarubino with China’s Jilin province – a scheme it wants China to help fund.
Image: Segments of a Hyperloop test track await assembly in Nevada in May this year (Hyperloop One)
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