Rivals prepare to challenge Amazon over pandemic festive period

Rivals prepare to challenge Amazon over pandemic festive period

Living in Abu Dhabi and commuting to work in Riyadh? Embarking at Jeddah for a two-hour journey to Dubai? A day trip from Riyadh to Makkah?

These futuristic notions could become reality in the age of the hyperloop, the fast-transit technology that is set to change everyday life in the Middle East, and the rest of the world, over the next decade.

Harj Dhaliwal, managing director for the Middle East and India at the Virgin Hyperloop Group, is more convinced than ever that hyperloop technology is the transport system of the future after the successful first passenger-carrying tests at a desert track in Nevada a couple of weeks ago.

"The US secretary for transport (Elaine Chao) said hyperloop is the most exciting thing happening to transportation today, and you have to agree with her. As this technology becomes proven, high-speed rail will become a thing of the past,“ he told Arab News.

Coming from Dhaliwal, that is quite a claim. His career, originally focusing on transport projects in the UK, has evolved into developing advance rail systems in the Middle East, including the Etihad Rail project in the UAE and the Riyadh Metro in Saudi Arabia, for the US group Parsons. But hyperloop will