Can hyperloops substitute high speed rails in the future?

Abstract

While the existing literature has focused on the impact of High Speed Rails (HSR) on the airline industry, we believe that this research is the first to examine the substitutability of HSR with Hyperloop services from an operational point of view. A simulation model is developed to compare the performance of both these alternate transportation modes for a network of three major cities in Europe (Amsterdam, Paris, and Frankfurt). Our results indicate that with a significantly lower pod capacity, the Hyperloop system will still be able to serve more customers compared to the HSR services, while the vehicle utilization is observed to be higher in the latter alternative for a given period of time. In addition, sensitivity analysis is conducted to assess the impact of variation in capsule capacity, number of pods in the system, and commuter variability. We further compare the two transportation modes with respect to their estimated infrastructure and operational costs as well as CO₂ emission. Finally, a cost–benefit analysis is conducted to evaluate the passenger ticket price for Hyperloop services.

Keywords:

• High-speed rails
• hyperloop
• substitutability
• cost
• time
• CO₂ emission

Data availability statement

We have used publicly available data in our study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Suchithra Rajendran

Suchithra Rajendran is an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Department and in the Marketing Department at the Robert J. Trulaske Sr. College of Business, University of Missouri. She has worked on projects with companies, such as Case New Holland and Schneider Electric. She is a recipient of the Richard Wallace Faculty Incentive Grant, Bob Bloss Faculty Enhancement Grant, and Winemiller Excellence Award in Data Analytics. She is a Penn State National Science Foundation Center for Health Organization Transformation (NSF CHOT) scholar, Service Enterprise Engineering fellow and also a recipient of the DAAD-WISE Fellowship of Germany. She is a lean six sigma black belt. Her research interests include healthcare delivery systems, supply chain optimization, marketing data analytics, multiple criteria decision making and quality assurance.

Akhouri Amitanand Sinha

Akhouri Amitanand Sinha earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia. His research interests include emerging logistics, supply chain management, service systems engineering and manufacturing.