The Hyperloop test track that was supposed to get you from downtown Denver to DIA in nine minutes is no longer happening, and it's all due to a lack of funds.
Arrivo, the startup that promised us the Hyperloop test track, has officially shut down, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). It was reported that the company couldn't secure enough funding for the track.
Co-founder and CEO of Arrivo Brogan BamBrogan said that groundbreaking for a test track would occur in early 2018, but it never happened. The company had hoped to hire 200 employees by 2020, but again, nothing ever came out of it. In fact, Arrivo ended up losing more employees than gaining them; 30-odd employees were furloughed in November, with roughly half the company being laid off at the end of that month.
Amy Ford, CDOT's communications director, said in a statement that Arrivo "closed their doors at the end of 2018", even though the company's website remains online (at the time of this writing).
She also stressed that this failure has not cost the taxpayers of Colorado any money, so you can rest easy. "Arrivo was moving forward on their own dime," Ford said. "They were doing their own analysis, looking at things like economic value capture and that kind of stuff. No dollars of ours had gone into Arrivo."
The Hyperloop was supposed to be an enclosed electromagnetic track along E-470, just northwest of DIA. Its goal? To get people anywhere in the Denver area within 20 minutes while traveling at a speed of 200 miles per hour -- a one-hour-and-10-minute drive from downtown Denver to DIA would've become a nine-minute journey and a one-hour drive from Boulder to Denver would've slimmed down to a mere eight minutes.
In a November 2017 press conference, BamBrogan said, "the idea that you could have dinner in Castle Rock and dessert in Boulder without even thinking about it, we want to unlock that choice."
However, this may not be the end of the Hyperloop as a whole. According to Ford, CDOT is continuing to build relationships with a different rapid speed transit company, Virgin Hyperloop One. The company told 9News in an email that they're "working on the finishing touches of the feasibility study now and still remain committed to exploring with CDOT how hyperloop can be implemented in the state of Colorado."
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