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TECHNOLOGY

Norwegians want futuristic vacuum train between Oslo and Copenhagen

Norway’s climate-friendly Green party wants American innovator Elon Musk’s Hyperloop transport concept to be up and running between two Scandinavian capitals within 20 years.

Norwegians want futuristic vacuum train between Oslo and Copenhagen
A 3D rendering of a concept monorail tunnel train. Photo: lookaround/Depositphotos

At its annual conference in the city of Lillehammer Saturday, the party received strong support for the proposal to introduce the futuristic train, reports newspaper Dagbladet.

Green Party member Per Espen Stoknes told the newspaper that the introduction of the environmentally-friendly transportation would create value.

“A network will be established between the major cities, and we don’t want to miss out,” he said.

A Hyperloop connection between Oslo and Copenhagen is still some way off, with the transport form still only at the design stage. But the Green party has hopes that the train, which will be tested in Dubai in the near future with a view to opening a connection in the United Arab Emirates in 2020, will provide a link between Oslo and Copenhagen by 2037.

The technology, which was developed by American investor and businessman Elon Musk – the man behind the Tesla car – is based on the principle of a train cabin travelling at the speed of sound through an airtight tube, saving both time and energy.

According to calculations, a Hyperloop could travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco – a distance of 560km – in 35 minutes, at an average speed of 970 kilometres per hour.

READ ALSO: Norway to grow food crops in space

“Other parties have not thus far shown any interest in this area. When they see that this is reality and not just green fantasy, and that it is based on scale and looking at overheads before profit, I think they will jump on the bandwagon,” Stoknes said.

The distance between Oslo and Copenhagen – as the crow flies – is around 480 kilometres. A Hyperloop trip between the two cities at 970 km/h would take somewhere around 29 minutes.

TRANSPORT

Copenhagen Metro lines reopen after two-week closure

Lines M3 and M4 of the Copenhagen Metro are back in service having reopened on Sunday, one day ahead of schedule.

Copenhagen Metro lines reopen after two-week closure

The two lines had been closed so that the Metro can run test operations before opening five new stations on the M4 line this summer.

The tests, which began on February 10th, are now done and the lines were running again as of Sunday evening, a day ahead of the original planned reopening on Monday February 26th.

“We are very pleased to be able to welcome our passengers on to our two lines M3 and M4,” head of operations with the Metro Søren Boysen said.

“The whole test procedure exceeded all expectations and went faster than expected and we can therefore get a head start on our reopening now,” he said.

Time set aside for potential repeat tests was not needed in the event, allowing the test closures to be completed ahead of time.

“Several of our many tests went better than expected and we have therefore not used all the time we needed for extra tests,” Boysen said.

The two lines serve around one million passengers every week, according to the Metro company.

READ ALSO: Copenhagen city government greenlights extension to Metro line

The new stops on the M4 line will be located south of central Copenhagen in the Valby and Sydhavn areas. The will have the names Haveholmen, Enghave Brygge, Sluseholmen, Mozarts Plads and København Syd (Copenhagen South).

The M3 and M4 lines, the newer sections of the Metro, opened in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

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