In 2003, Mark Ovenden laid out what a World Metro map would look like in the book Metro Maps of the World if Hyperloop - a soon to be released transport system that runs at faster-than-airline speed - becomes predominant.
Hyperloop One aims to bring a global underground system to life. Recently the company announced the 35 finalist teams in its global challenge.
The competition invites different teams to propose various comprehensive commercial, transport, economic and policy case for their cities, regions or countries to potentially host the first hyperloop networks.
The challenge is not an engineering competition; it's a lot less specialized than that. "We bring the technology, you tell us how it should be used in your location," the competition page says.
The map has resurfaced following the news.
"It’s more than just a train, or a pod in a tube," Josh Giegel, President of engineering at Hyperloop One, told Inverse.
"We’re taking it to a level of connectivity and really being the high-speed backbone of the future transportation network."
In August, news spread that >Dubai may actually become the first place in the world where Elon Musk's Hyperloop is built and put to commercial use.
Traveling between major Gulf cities will become much easier and far quicker.
Dubai to Riyadh would take 48 minutes, Dubai to Abu Dhabi would take 12 minutes, Dubai to Doha would take 23 minutes and Dubai to Muscat would take 27 minutes.
Imagine how much shorter traveling between major cities in the Middle East would become if this turned into reality. Let's talk about getting rid of the movement barriers that are produced by war and occupation first!
Hyperloop technology is the brainchild of billionaire businessman and investor Elon Musk of Tesla and Space X.
Essentially, the Hyperloop train will shoot capsules at high speeds through a nearly complete vacuum inside a large-scale tube.
When implemented, the technology could drastically decrease required transport time, allowing cities to become more like metro stops than distant destinations.