PUEBLO — A couple of men pushed the sled full of tech equipment into the steel tube toward the starting line. Moments later a metallic clank was followed by the sounds of acceleration echoing out of the elevated tube that stretched 1,700 feet across the wind-blown prairie.
Within seconds it was over and the sudden silence in the tube was replaced by the cheers of about 150 people in a VIP tent where they’d huddled out of the bitter cold wind and around screens showing the view from a camera attached to the sled-like vehicle dubbed Aerys 1 as it made its run through the tube. An ecstatic Denis Tudor emerged from the tent and trotted toward the test track.
It was as if an Olympic trial in the hyperloop world had arrived for Tudor as Swisspod Technologies notched another record: The vehicle reached 102 kilometers per hour (nearly 65 mph).
“We just set a new record for speed,” the Swisspod CEO said, “and we only used 62% of the power we had.”
Sure, that’s about a third of the speed of the slowest high-speed railroads. Sure, the test track isn’t close to being done. And sure, an envisioned pod that could hold 20 passengers and zip through a vacuum tube at speeds topping 300 mph will be years in the making.
But the successful Nov. 21 test meant a day for celebration in the world of advanced technology and for southern Colorado. The Aerys 1 was built at Swisspod’s Colorado Springs facility and tested at PuebloPlex, just east of Pueblo.
The test run attracted attention from local, state and federal officials as well as tech nerds, economic development folks and transportation experts.
“Today we get to celebrate that Pueblo hosts the largest hyperloop facility in the world,” said Pueblo Mayor Heather Graham, noting that what happens at the test track at PuebloPlex — the site of the former Pueblo Army Depot — has the potential to “transform mobility worldwide.”
A longstanding need
Swisspod’s hyperloop system certainly grabs the attention of those who’ve longed for improved rail transportation in the United States, a need that has been noted since at least the mid-20th century.
The High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965 led to plenty of research, a rail test center in Pueblo, and more than 400 reports on railroad and advanced systems, according to the 10th and final report to Congress in May 1977. But no national high-speed rail system emerged.
During remarks at the recent Swisspod test, Drew Feeley, deputy administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, said “the state of passenger rail in the United States isn’t so great,” and the federal Department of Transportation is looking for ways to improve it.
“That’s why I’m here to check this out,” he said during an interview. Although the railroad administration is supportive of emerging technologies, projects like Swisspod’s generally aren’t eligible for much federal financial help, he said.
He heavily criticized Amtrak and California’s attempt to build a high-speed rail system within the state. “California had no plan for development, they are building it piece by piece,” he said when asked why the Trump administration had cut federal funding for the program.
He said there are some projects that hold promise for the near term, including Brightline in Florida, which has opened a line from Orlando to Miami and plans to expand to Tampa. Brightline West is planning a line from Los Angeles to Las Vegas that also holds promise, he said.
Both Brightline routes use at least some interstate right-of-way for their tracks, which has helped dodge the ever-present right-of-way, or not-in-my-backyard, problem. Also, Brightline Florida, runs on track owned and shared by Florida East Coast Railway from Cocoa to Miami.
Feeley suggested that interstate rights-of-way may provide a solution in many places where it has been difficult to obtain land for rails.
But that idea is not new — Texas A&M University studied the issue in 1985 when the state was considering a high-speed rail system to connect Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin. It concluded that highway rights-of-way could provide a solution for building a railway.
Still, Brightline is far below the standard of at least 186 mph for high-speed surface transportation. Its top speed is 125 mph and it has the worst safety record in the country, according to the Miami Herald. The paper reported that 182 people had been struck and killed by Brightline trains since 2017.
The privately owned, for-profit railroad also has been criticized for receiving millions in government subsidies, high ticket prices, catering to the wealthy who don’t want to drive in south Florida and for potentially slowing high-speed transportation projects.
Meanwhile, more than 20 other countries have developed high-speed rail. China leads the pack, with more than 22,000 miles of high-speed track in operation, according to Statista. The United States has less than 500 miles of dedicated high-speed track.
Some have suggested that smaller intercity routes in the United States are more likely to succeed than any national high-speed rail project, but even those are proceeding slowly.
And new technologies, such as hyperloop, would require an entirely different type of track-way. But the question remains of whether any such technologies are close enough on the horizon to leap-frog over high-speed rail in the United States.
The possibility of hyperloop
Tudor began working on hyperloop technology in 2015 when he was a student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, or EPFL. He co-founded the rLoop and EPFLoop teams that competed in the Space X Hyperloop Pod competitions that ran from 2015 to 2019.
The teams won awards for best design in 2016, best innovation in 2017, best engineering in 2018, and third place for speed in 2018. The EPFLoop team also took third place overall in 2018 and 2019.
The competitions ended and interest in hyperloop technology cooled, but Tudor and others kept at it.
In 2019 Tudor and fellow engineer Cyril Dénéréaz incorporated Swisspod Technologies with the goal of making hyperloop transportation a reality. They built a small test track in Lausanne, Switzerland, and in 2021 entered into an agreement to build a test track at PuebloPlex.
In late 2024, they unveiled the first 25 steel tubes of the test track and vowed to have the first test on the track a year later. They fulfilled that goal Nov. 21.
But until the full, mile-long oval track is completed, they can’t test for the high speeds that require an endless loop. Tudor estimated it would take a couple more years to complete the track.
“It takes time and money,” he said with a shrug. In the meantime, the team will continue to develop the pods, which contain the brains of the system.
By putting all the electronic systems in the pod, Swisspod does not have to electrify the entire track, which means the cost for the track infrastructure is about a tenth of other types of track.
Aerys 1 is likely to be followed by Aerys 2 and so on. The engineering will continue. The tests will continue and eventually there will be a hyperloop system that can transport freight and people, Tudor said.
Once the visionaries and engineers have done their work, it will be up to policymakers and others to overcome right-of-way issues and find routes and the money for the infrastructure.
Expanding in Southern Colorado
Tudor is certain enough that hyperloop will become a reality that earlier this year Swisspod announced it would develop a manufacturing and assembly facility in Colorado Springs.
The Colorado Economic Development Commission approved up to $918,000 in tax credits, based on Swisspod’s plan to create 107 jobs at an average annual wage of nearly $68,000, according to an April 9 news release from Gov. Jared Polis. The incentives will be over eight years.
In addition, El Paso County approved more than $1 million in incentives, and the city of Colorado Springs promised another $5,250 in sales tax incentives over four years, the release said.
Swisspod now has about 20 employees in Colorado who work with the headquarters in Switzerland and other engineers and designers scattered around the world, said Madalina Stoicescu, chief operating officer and head of marketing for Swisspod.
“Assembly of the vehicle began and was carried out in Colorado Springs,” she said. “But Aerys 1 is truly a global effort. The design, software, and other key components were created by our international team.”
She said future prototypes of the Aerys vehicle would be built at Swisspod’s facility at 4171 Sinton Road in Colorado Springs.
“It’s telling that folks from Europe are making this kind of investment in southern Colorado,” Sen. Michael Bennet said as he waited to witness the recent test. “This has potential space applications and there’s overlap with Colorado’s engineering talent.”
Bennet, who is running for governor of Colorado, said he expects this kind of technology would be an economic focus for the state in the “whole next century.”
The recent test brought the company one small step closer to bringing such visions to reality.
“It was amazing,” said Selim Sheif, who works in simulations for Swisspod. “But it went so fast we lost the signal off the camera.”