RAILWAYS OF THE FUTURE: EVOLUTION AND PROSPECTS OF HIGH-SPEED, MAGLEV AND HYPERLOOP (1st Part)

Abstract

High Speed Ground Transportation (HSGT) represents the new transportation mode of our time. Its appearance is the result of a long process evolving from the beginning of railways, back on the early decades of the 20th century, in response to the desire to transport more passengers more frequently, faster and more safely. Following these goals, which are still valid nowadays, new technologies were developed under great expectation and demand worldwide. Some examples are the High-Speed Rails (HSR or AVE, by its Spanish acronym), and other more attractive systems called to play a relevant role in the future, such as the not as widespread MAGLEV and the brand new Hyperloop. Given that speculating about their near future is a hard task, this paper tries to identify their main achievements and obstacles, and to figure out the real possibilities and challenges these systems face through the analysis of their historical evolution, current status and the forecasts made by the scientific and technological community. Keywords: HSGT typologies, HSR, MAGLEV, Hyperloop, future challenges.