---
title: "Dubai Could Be Home To the World’s First Hyperloop"
description: "​Add the Middle East to the list of potential inaugural sites for the super-fast transportation system. "
date: "2016-08-17"
modified: "2016-08-17"
authors:
  - name: "Will Sabel Courtney"
    job_title: "Contributor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/will-sabel-courtney"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/4880/dubai-could-be-home-to-the-worlds-first-hyperloop"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "Dubai"
  - "hyperloop"
---

# Dubai Could Be Home To the World’s First Hyperloop

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/jebel_ali_port_hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

​While Elon Musk's dream of a series of transonic vacuum-sealed tubes for transporting people and goods may have been born in California, [the Hyperloop may first become a reality in Dubai](<https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/15/dubai-hopes-to-hop-on-hyperloop-ones-global-shipping-train/>), according to one of the companies hard at work developing the futuristic transportation system.

According to Hyperloop One CEO Rob Lloyd, Dubai is a prime location for the high-speed network to leap from concept to concrete. “It’s got the infrastructure, regulatory movement and kind of capital in place needed to build it already,”​ he said, according to *Tech Crunch*.

Hyperloop One is reportedly planning a feasibility study in partnership with port operations company DP World​ to see what developing a 'Loop for the Jebel Ali port could bring to the table. Supposedly, DP World is considering using an underwater version of the high-speed transport to zip cargo between the terminals. The port could use the help; [the 67-berth facility is 52 square miles in size](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Jebel_Ali>), and is the world's largest man-made harbor.

But Dubai is hardly the only region clamoring to be the first place the Hyperloop sets up shop. A Russian port company owned by billionaire Ziyavudin Magomedov​ has also teamed up with Hyperloop One to consider whether [the super-fast pods would be a good fit for Moscow's transportation needs](<https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/21/11984548/hyperloop-one-moscow-announcement-magomedov>). And separate Hyperloop development company Hyperloop Transportation Technologies​ has signed on to potentially build [an example of the system connecting Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest](<https://www.wired.com/2016/03/slovakia-great-first-stop-hyperloop-no-joke/>).

Besides, any such production-spec Hyperloop obviously lies a long ways off. ​Hyperloop One only conducted its first large-scale test of the system back in May, when [it fired a test bed for the electromagnetic propulsion system down a stretch of track](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/3434/the-hyperloop-just-completed-its-first-trial-run-kinda>) in the Nevada desert. At the time, Lloyd said the company was hoping to have a cargo version of the system ready by 2019, with a passenger-spec Hyperloop up and running by 2021.

All this, of course, also assumes that Hyperloop One doesn't wind up bogged down in a legal quagmire over [the lawsuit battle it is currently engaged in with incredibly-named co-founder Brogan BamBrogan​](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/4413/hyperloop-one-sued-by-co-founder-brogan-bambrogan>). Which we mention largely so we can write "Brogan BamBrogan​."

## Author
Will is the former managing editor of *RIDES Magazine* and the former online editor for *0-60 Magazine*. He has worked for *Time Out New York* and *Rolling Stone*, and was the creator of *College Cars Online*, the first automotive blog specifically targeted at college students and young professionals.

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/willsabelcourtney>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/willscourtney>)