Found: The French Hyperloop of 1974

In 1974, the French Aérotrain broke the rail land-speed record with 430kph and a line was planned between La Défense and Cergy. However, one month later the government changed direction and chose the TGV as its transport for the future.

Now, the Hyperloop is daily becoming reality with high-speed testing in the Nevada desert at speeds of 640kph – more than twice that of a TGV.

Pods of up to 28 people will be propelled through a partial vacuum in a steel tunnel and could slash both journey times and costs with speeds of 1,000kph.

A San Francisco-Los Angeles trip may take 30min and cost around $20, compared with around 1h30 and $155 today. In France, Paris-Marseille would be 40min instead of 3h20.
Transport firms globally are investing including SNCF, operator of the TGV network.

The 1974 Aérotrain ran on a monorail but became a hover-train in motion as lead engineer Jean Bertin said losing friction with the rails made it easier to hit high speeds.
Five prototypes were built, and test tracks can still be seen at Gometz-le-Châtel, Essonne, and in Loiret, north of Orléans, between Saran and Ruan.

In 1974 it broke the land-speed record but France suddenly changed direction and then, in 1975, revealed plans for the Paris-Lyon TGV line. Later that same year Mr Bertin died.

Fires destroyed the remaining Aérotrains at Gometz and Chevilly in 1991-92 but before he died Mr Bertin managed to interest US firm Rohr Industries which built a prototype in Colorado in 1970.

Tested in 1974 but mothballed in 1975 it was rediscovered in the Pueblo Railway Museum by Aérotrain fan Jérôme Tillier, whose site tillierworld.com has a film about it and links to other Aérotrain sites.