Richard Branson’s company has just laid off 111 people. According to FinancialTimesVirgin Hyperloop is reviewing its priorities and decides to abandon passenger transport for the transport of goods.
Virgin Hyperloop focuses on freight transport
Just a year ago, Virgin Hyperloop was still planning to develop magnetic capsules capable of carrying passengers at the speed of a jet plane. Ultimately, this project will most certainly not see the light of day. Richard Branson’s company announced that it was abandoning this strategy, for the benefit of another market, certainly juicier and simpler from a regulatory point of view. In passing, 111 employees of the company were thanked. Half of the workforce.
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A company spokesperson confirmed to FinancialTimes that the change of activity was in the process of being operated. He is pointing out that supply chain issues and the Covid-19 pandemic have largely contributed to this pivot. Analysts also believe that the passenger transport market, with new technologies like those promised by Branson, may have been too complex. on the regulatory side. We will therefore probably never have the opportunity to travel in Virgin Hyperloop capsules.
The company wants to bring logistics platforms closer to customers
Still, Richard Branson had big ambitions for the Hyperloop. Eventually, he planned to eliminate the plane as a medium-distance means of transport. The technologies developed by the company correspond to a magnetic levitation train which circulates inside a tube in a nearly vacuum environment, thus eliminating almost all friction and air resistance. This process allows you to travel comfortably at speeds up to 1,200 km/h. The technologies will not be abandoned, simply adapted to a new market.
Virgin Hyperloop will therefore put the package on freight transport, to respond to a real global problem. One of the first concepts imagined by Richard Branson’s company was precisely an “inner port”, in which ships placed containers on capsules that would be thrown inland before being processed by other carriers. The idea is to rethinking supply chains and bring logistics platforms closer to customers. The current context has undoubtedly prompted the American company to review its plans.