Hyperloop Route Planner
A web tool that lets people compare travel on the proposed European hyperloop network against conventional transport — by time, cost, and environmental impact.
| Client | Hardt |
|---|---|
| UN SDGs | 09 Industry, Innovation And Infrastructure 13 Climate Action 17 Partnerships For The Goals |
| Impact | Netherlands |
| Technologies | API |
01 Introduction
Hardt is a European hyperloop technology company. From its test facilities in the Netherlands, Hardt has demonstrated and proven core hyperloop technologies. The company set up the European Hyperloop Center, secured investment from the European Commission, and is working with European regulators to create a pathway for commercialising hyperloop technology in Europe and beyond.
We partnered with Hardt to build a web-based route planner that lets people compare travel on a hyperloop network against current options like road and air. The aim was to show that hyperloop is efficient and affordable once you account for the time saved, while also highlighting its environmental benefits and significant safety advantages for passengers.
Alongside this, Hardt wanted to capture anonymous usage data from the tool to help inform wider business decisions across the organisation.
02 The Project
The tool needed to combine data supplied by Hardt — covering hyperloop routes, speeds, and stations — with third-party sources. We investigated several options, including Google Openroute, Traveltime, Skyscanner, and Travelport, and worked with Hardt to choose the most suitable ones, weighing up the costs before settling on a final set. The APIs we chose then shaped the technical build of the tool.
The data Hardt provided included approximate locations for all hyperloop stations, plus energy use, journey time, and cost per mile/km for hyperloop (or the proposed cost between stations), and the global CO2 impact if a route were built.
We had hoped to source most of the data from Google's APIs, but these lacked the detail we needed on airport locations, available flights between them, and flight durations. Because we had to calculate the journey from the user's starting point to the nearest suitable airport — and do the same at the destination end — we combined Google's APIs with Amadeus and our own locally sourced data. To keep things accurate, we also factored in the curvature of the Earth.
Two main challenges stood out during the build:
First, accuracy. Combining different data sources was difficult, and some requests had to run one after another rather than in parallel. Handled badly, this could have made the tool slow to use, reduced engagement, and undermined its whole purpose.
Second, clarity. We had to design around the "curse of knowledge" — the bias of assuming everyone shares your background understanding. Not everyone reads data easily, and even fewer have a feel for what a given amount of CO2 actually means. To bridge that gap, we let users compare the figures against everyday things that consume energy, such as cooking burgers, bananas, and LED light bulbs.
$sql = "SELECT * , (3956 * 2 * ASIN(SQRT( POWER(SIN(( $lat - latitude) * pi()/180 / 2), 2) +COS( $lat * pi()/180) * COS(latitude * pi()/180) * POWER(SIN(( $long - longitude) * pi()/180 / 2), 2) ))) AS distance FROM airports WHERE airport_type = 'large_airport' ORDER BY distance LIMIT 1";
if ($result = $mysqli->query($sql)) {
while ($obj = $result->fetch_object()) {
$airport = array(
'name' => trim($obj->name),
'distance' => ($obj->distance * 1.609),
'latitude' => trim($obj->latitude),
'longitude' => trim($obj->longitude)
);
// {"type":"location","subType":"AIRPORT","name":"HEATHROW","detailedName":"LONDON\/GB:HEATHROW","timeZoneOffset":"+01:00","iataCode":"LHR","geoCode":{"latitude":51.47294,"longitude":-0.45061},"address":{"cityName":"LONDON","cityCode":"LON","countryName":"UNITED KINGDOM","countryCode":"GB","regionCode":"EUROP"},"distance":{"value":57,"unit":"KM"},"analytics":{"flights":{"score":39},"travelers":{"score":45}},"relevance":67.63792}
}
return json_encode($airport);
}03 Conclusion
Our work with Hardt produced a tool that clearly compares the energy efficiency and speed of hyperloop against conventional transport. It gives users an easy-to-use interface and interactive features to explore the advantages of the technology, with animated charts, tables, and tooltips making complex information easy to take in.
The project reinforced several lessons. Close collaboration between our development and design teams kept functionality and presentation working together. The right APIs proved essential for accessing accurate, up-to-date data for meaningful comparisons. And interactive touches like animated charts and tooltips made a real difference to how easily people could understand the data.
The result is a clear demonstration of how collaboration, thoughtful design, and careful development can deliver a genuinely useful tool — one that helps make the case for sustainable, efficient transport.
