The Cargoloop

Abstract

It is expected that the express delivery market will grow strongly in the coming years. This growth, however, is restricted by the shortage of express transportation capacity and is increasingly causing congestion. The transport sector is not only subject to this growing demand from a business perspective but also faces environmental challenges. The unsustainable nature of current transport combined with the limited capacity, have led to an interest for a new form of transport: the Cargoloop, a cargo application of the hyperloop. The fundamental concept of this idea is that cargo will be transported through an autonomous ground-based system that consists of vehicles within a low-pressure tube, in which high speeds of around 1000 kilometres per hour can be achieved. By reducing the air resistance in the tube, little energy is necessary to put the pressurized vehicles in motion which in turn, results in an energy efficient form of transport. Moreover, it is hypothesized that the Cargoloop could act as a stepping stone towards transporting passengers via the hyperloop. However, so far, little research has been done into this topic. This study therefore investigates the economic feasibility of the Cargoloop. In order to be able to do this, the Cargoloop must first be designed. This study therefore consists of a two-step approach: in the first step a potential design of the Cargoloop is established and an initial route is proposed, followed by the second step in which the economic feasibility of the Cargoloop is investigated by means of a cost-benefit analysis (CBA). An overview of the costs and the benefits was investigated for three different CBA scenarios, in which the project was financed in different ways. The results showed that there was no scenario in which the Cargoloop is economically feasible on the trajectory between the airports of Cologne-Bonn and Paris-CDG. A fundamental factor for explaining this, is that when looking at the number of vehicles that would be annual operational on the route between the airports of Cologne-Bonn and Paris-CDG compared to the annual capacity of the Cargoloop, it could be found that only a small percentage of the capacity of the Cargoloop is utilized on this route. Substantial more cargo would need to be transported to make the Cargoloop economically feasible on this trajectory. This could be realized by obtaining a larger modal share or by expanding the network, so the overall cargo flow will become larger.