Passengers boarding at Dubai's Al Maktoum Hyperloop Terminal this week stepped into a capsule, felt a gentle hum beneath them, and arrived in Abu Dhabi twelve minutes later. What was once a commute is now barely a coffee break.
The UAE Hyperloop Authority, in partnership with two European engineering consortia, spent seven years constructing the vacuum tube infrastructure across the desert corridor between the two cities. The system can carry up to 3,000 passengers per hour per direction at cruising speeds of 1,080 kilometres per hour.
The energy footprint is remarkably low. Solar panels covering the tube's exterior generate more electricity than the system consumes, making it the world's first net-positive energy mass transit line.
Extensions to Riyadh and Muscat are already in planning, and delegations from Germany, India, and California have visited to assess feasibility of similar corridors in their regions.
"Infrastructure is a statement of what a society believes is possible," said the UAE Minister of Future Mobility. "Today, we believe everything is possible."