Amount of works and activities tending towards defining new transport mode on the basis of the hyperloop system concept is growing significantly. They assume use of individual vehicles, offering space for several dozen passengers, running with speeds near speed of sound in a closed space with significantly lowered air pressure, utilizing magnetic levitation. Simultaneously it is fairly from economic point of view assumed, that first implementations should link locations between which traffic demand is expected to be very high. Assumed short spacing between hyper-vehicles, which are frequently declared to be ad-hoc adjusted to transport demand, to the knowledge of the authors gained in railway transport, seems to be in conflict with high speed safety related spacing in view of the line infrastructure capacity operational rules defined in the UIC (International Union of Railways) documents. That is the challenge, that formed the basis for authors’ investigations described in the paper. Several thesis regarding future new mode of transport based on hyperloop concept form an outcome of those investigations presented in conclusions.

Idea to travel faster and faster is as old as human civilization. Different ways were used to move from point to point over centuries. The railways, cars, air-plains and rockets were invented. Each of them have limitations and advantages. Therefore, people always look for other, better solutions. One of them is “vacuum rail” moving inside a tube, known also as a Hyperloop. The number of problems to be solved is extremely high. This paper is devoted to civil engineering problems only e.g. viaducts, tunnels, stations. It is necessary to consider the kind of sub- and superstructure supporting the tube, influence of changes of ambient temperature and solar radiation, the way to ensure safety and structural integrity of the structures in case of fire, decompression of a structural tube and air-tightening, occurrence of accidents etc. Taking into account the fact that bridge and tunnel standards do not include information relating to above mentioned problems it is interesting to determine rules for design, construction and maintenance of such structures.

The hyperloop concept is not new, but for many years it was hard for engineers to believe that it could be economically and technically feasible. Nowadays some technical solutions, which could enable construction and operation of a guided transport system based on hyperloop concept, are much more imaginable. Therefore a number of start-up companies are working on comprehensive proposals and chosen technologies aiming at creating the fifth transport mode thanks to innovative concepts, new technologies, and chosen railway, air transport, and space technologies. As new transport mode is expected to offer transport with high speed nearly equal to the speed of sound its feasibility will strongly depend also on coherency between transport means and transport infrastructure in a scale of a future fifth transport mode continent-wide transport network. To meet this challenge railway and start-up companies work together in two streams – in the formal framework of the European standardisation to prepare future hyperloop related EN standards and in research and development projects. The scale of required wide technical coherency on one side and the diversification of products and existence of different developers/producers/contracting entities providing infrastructure and transport means and creating market on the other side contradict if appropriate rules are not set precisely early enough. Such rules in railway transport are based on interoperability concept supported by agreed stable essential requirements and defined in the Railway Interoperability Directive and Technical Specifications for Interoperability. Paper presents findings regarding poor applicability of the railway interoperability to the hyperloop type transport systems at their early stage of development as well as challenges and proposed approaches for the dedicated hyperloop coherency approach – the hyperoperability as it is being discussed in the framework of the Hypernex European project.