Hypothetical Hyperloop from Palma de Mallorca

The advent of Virgin’s Hyperloop One offers a fascinating look into the future. Their goal is to have “operational systems in the mid 2020’s”, so with only a few years to wait, take a look at this World Transit Map created by Mark Ovenden for the Penguin book, Transit Maps of the World.

Palma de Mallorca sits proudly as one of the stations amongst many of the world’s great capitals both far and near. However, to be a station between Barcelona and Valencia may take tunnel boring to a new level, or is that depth?

Mark Ovenden’s 2003 book cover. Image: Penguin

Whilst this is obviously not Hyperloop One’s map, just imagine arriving at the station in Palma de Mallorca and taking a direct train to Shanghai for a journey of 11,000+ kilometres. Now a timetable isn’t exactly ready yet, but using the ‘Choose a route and see how much time you can save’ section of the Hyperloop website, this journey is timed at 11 hours 7 minutes. And with a claimed top speed of 1080 kilometres per hour, that’s pretty quick in anyone’s language.

For more information head over to the Virgin Hyperloop One website, and for a little bit of fun why not choose a route and see how long the journey will take?