The Hyperloop project, previously supported by Richard Branson, is being shut down

Hyperloop One has raised more than $450 million and built a test track in the Nevada desert in hopes of creating a new form of transportation. Virgin.com/PA

A US start-up that hoped to revolutionize public transport using 760mph Hyperloop technology is shutting down a year after Sir Richard Branson withdrew his support for the business.

Hyperloop One, which tried to commercialize a new type of transport conceived by billionaire Elon Musk, plans to sell its assets and wind down its operations, Bloomberg reports.

In 2013, Musk proposed an alternative to high-speed rail and air travel in which passengers would travel through vacuum tunnels in levitating capsules. He claimed that this technology would reduce travel time from Los Angeles to San Francisco to 30 minutes, compared to nearly six hours by car.

A number of startups have tried to bring the theory to life. Hyperloop One has raised more than $450 million (£353 million) to build a test track in the Nevada desert.

In 2017, the company was renamed Virgin Hyperloop One. Sir Richard's company took a stake in the business and called it “an incredibly innovative and exciting new way of moving people and things around the world at the speed of airplanes.”

< p>But last year The Telegraph reported that Virgin was abandoning of its brand from the Hyperloop project and is selling its minority stake in this venture.

The company was renamed Virgin Hyperloop One in 2017 after Sir Richard's company acquired a stake in the business. Photo: Virgin.com/PA Wire

Although the company completed the first test of its pod system with human passengers in 2020, the company's attempts to build hundreds of miles of pipes to connect cities around the world have never progressed beyond a 500-meter test track.

< p>Bloomberg reported that employment contracts for the remaining Hyperloop One employees will expire on December 31. The company's intellectual property will expire. will be transferred to Dubai-based shipping conglomerate DP World, which owns a majority stake in the business.

Engineering experts have repeatedly noted that the concept faces serious technical challenges that could prevent the idea from ever becoming a reality.

Some startups still harbor hopes of turning the theoretical technology into reality. In Europe, Dutch company Hardt Hyperloop raised €12 million (£10.4 million) earlier this year to build a test center.

Hyperloop One did not respond to a request for comment.