Estate agents aren’t really known for their creative advertising, so it was refreshing to come across the latest PR campaign by Knight Frank.

Here’s the idea – drive cross-country in South Africa and you’ll notice an abundance of unused land. According to Knight Frank, “while there is an abundance of land available for development outside cities, the difficulty lies in convincing populations to move there”.

That’s where the Hyperloop comes in.

The Hyperloop is the brainchild of Elon Musk, and was initially conceptualised as a way to help Californians cross the distance between San Francisco and Los Angeles in half an hour, reports BusinessTech.

According to Knight Frank, if successful, the Hyperloop could make travel between cities much easier, taking the pressure off gridlocked roads, cutting travel times and breathing new life into and expanding the commuter belt around towns and cities.

Knight Frank noted that two companies have been working on making this concept a reality, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HyperloopTT) and Virgin Hyperloop One.

“Both claim that this new mode of transportation could be a reality within three years. Early experiments are already taking place on the stretch of desert between Abu Dhabi and Dubai,” the group said.

While the introduction of a Hyperloop in South Africa is probably not going to happen for a while, Knight Frank want to get ahead of the game. Using Virgin’s Hyperloop One website, they worked out the travel times between SA’s major cities.

Johannesburg to Cape Town

The calculations take into account check-in and boarding times as well, which is why the average flight between Jozi and Cape Town takes roughly four and a half hours.

According to Virgin’s estimates, the Hyperloop would allow commuters to travel from Johannesburg to Cape Town in one and half hours – three times faster than by plane (including travel times to the airport, check-ins, baggage claim etc), and 10 times faster than a typical car trip.

You would be able to organise a night out on Jozi from Cape Town without having to make a weekend of it.

Johannesburg to Durban

A trip between Jozi and Durban would take you only 40 minutes.

Durban to Cape Town

Durban to Cape Town would take roughly the same amount of time as the trip between Jozi and Cape Town.

Would be nice if this happened at some time in the near future. Then again, we can’t seem to get it together with regular public transport, so it’s unlikely.

[source:businesstech]