Technology & Innovation Hyperloop
European
hyperloop is
taking off in
Veendam
Text Jos Wassink
© Illustration Stephan Timmers
Students who used to work on the Delft Hyperloop on campus are now doing so as engineers at the European Hyperloop Centre in Veendam. The Centre houses a test track of almost half a kilometre of hyperloop tube.
An industrial estate emerges from a vast and barren landscape at the northeastern end of Veendam. Sandwiched between a canal and a railway line, there’s an immense area of warehouses. Behind this, there is a 2.5-metre thick, snow-white articulated tube on pedestals.
At 420 metres 1 , it is Europe’s longest hyperloop track. At the end of the 34 segments there is 2 a container with a vacuum pump (up to 1 millibar), an area housing the control room 3 , and a workshop.
A swelling sound can be heard from the control room as the Hyperloop vehicle 4 moves through the tube. Camera images show how the vehicle floats through the green and red-lit tunnel tube without any contact whatsoever. To do this, the vehicle uses four pairs of rails: for the floating suspension 5 , drive 6 , stabilisation 7 and as an emergency brake 8 . Additionally, the tube contains a cable duct 9 and an LED strip 10 . Manholes 11 have been installed in several segments for accessibility. Rings with stainless steel ribs form expansion segments 12 to accommodate thermal stretch and shrinkage (up to about 2 centimetres).
Despite how advanced this technology is, the tube consists of ‘simple’ steel. The energy, forces and control technology of magnetic levitation, propulsion and steering are all housed in the 2.5-tonne vehicle. In September, it covered the first 90 metres of the tube with an acceleration of 0.2 g (2m/s2) at a speed of up to about 30 kilometres per hour. That was the start.
Engineers are now working on the switch located further along the tube. This lane switch 13 involves a branch to the left that later bends back to the right. By moving the suspension rails slightly towards the inside of the curve, Hardt Hyperloop engineers aim to use the magnetic force of the suspension to generate the centripetal force needed to pull the vehicle through the curve.
The European Hyperloop Centre (EHC) is an open research facility where hyperloop companies can develop and test their technology. In Summer 2025, the EHC will be the setting for the European Hyperloop Week at which student teams and companies will be competing to have the best hyperloop technology.
Tim Houter, TU Delft alumnus and co-founder of Hardt Hyperloop, expects a first European hyperloop route to be operational by about 2030. It is likely to be a short link with a slightly larger diameter connecting an airport to a city centre.
Hyperloop began in 2015 as a challenge from Elon Musk to student teams and industry. He envisioned a public transportation system in which cabins or pods shoot through airless tubes like capsules through tube mail.