Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, based in California, plans to build 10 km (six miles) of a 150-km route linking Abu Dhabi and Dubai next year, company chairman Bibop Gresta told the official WAM news agency.

Gresta did not give a specific date for the launch of the high-speed transport system but said estimates put the cost at US$3 billion to US$6 billion.

Last April, Hyperloop signed a memorandum of understanding with Al-Dar Properties, a major real estate firm based in Abu Dhabi, for the construction and operation of the near-supersonic transport link.

The first capsule of the UAE train has now left the assembly facility in Spain to Toulouse, France where it will be tested on a prototype track, Gresta said.

A hyperloop is a shuttle pod that travels on magnetic rails, somewhat like a train, but which runs in a tube with little or no air.

In theory, hyperloops could allow travel faster than the speed of sound.