Pioneering Northern Arc Route Revealed

Hyperloop One and the winning engineering and design partners will offer Europe’s transport grid an option that is more efficient, greener, on demand and faster.  From over 2,600 international entries, nine European entries have been shortlisted – Germany, Estonia-Finland, Spain-Morocco, Corsica-Sardinia, The Netherlands, Poland, UK Scotland-Wales, UK Northern Arc and UK North-South Connector.

Hyperloop One’s vision for Europe creates economic unification to provide better options for people living outside of economic centers and large cities,  increases capacity of strategic corridors sustainably to develop city to city connections within commuting range, enabling a thriving, greener mega region and offers next generation logistics to facilitate fast, reliable and clean movement of goods.

Ryder Architecture and Arup with support from KPMG, launched Northern Arc – a pioneering business led collaboration with local government to bring transformational transport to the north of the UK – in response to Hyperloop One’s global challenge.

The Northern Arc route covers Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow, aims to create a coordinated, government backed, deliverable proposal which will connect Scotland with the Northern Powerhouse partners to create a super region and showcase the north of England as a global leader of transport innovation.

With Hyperloop One, passengers and cargo are loaded into a pod and accelerated gradually via electric propulsion through a low pressure tube.  The pod quickly lifts above the track using magnetic levitation and glides at airline speeds for long distances due to ultra low aerodynamic drag.  It is designed for higher energy efficiency per passenger mile than traditional modes of transport, curbing emissions and fuel consumption. Using Hyperloop One technology, the Northern Arc route has the potential to connect 10.4m people across the six great cities of the north with the total journey time of 47 minutes.

The Northern Arc team have received strong levels of support on the submission from NELEP, and have engaged with the Department for Transport, BEIS and a range of other local authorities and regeneration agencies.

Northern Arc is about creating a bigger and better northern network, building on the initial concept of the Northern Powerhouse and transcending the border into Scotland.  It will connect the major economic corridors of the M62 and the Scottish central belt to create a super region with the capability to compete on the world economic stage.

Paul Bell, partner at Ryder said, “Northern Arc is more than a Hyperloop route – it is the economic region that the northern powerhouse should be and we’re excited to be involved in this pioneering opportunity.”

The route would link Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh into an integrated northern arc airport with secure city check ins in Glasgow, Leeds and Liverpool and with proposed extensions to Aberdeen, Belfast and Hull, Northern Arc will connect all the major ports in the north of the United Kingdom, providing the opportunity to transform domestic distribution and significantly reducing congestion and C02.

Nick Merridew, director at Arup said, “We are delighted to bring our design and engineering expertise and knowledge of Hyperloop systems to make the concept a reality not only for the north but for the UK.”

By the end of 2017, Hyperloop One will have a team of 500 employees dedicated to bringing the technology and the winning Global Challenges routes to life.