Magnetic freight delivery concept could slash road congestion

This is the claim of Magway, a London based-start up behind the scheme that has already received almost £1.5m of seed funding and grants since it was founded in 2017, including a £650,000 grant secured from Innovate UK. The company now hopes to raise a further £750,000 through a fresh wave of crowdfunding.

The company's co-founder and technical director Rupert Cruise told The Engineer that the concept initially sprung out of growing interest in Hyperloop, the high speed transportation concept originally proposed by Tesla founder Elon Musk (and now being developed by Virgin Hyperloop One) that will use linear electric motors to accelerate passenger pods through low pressure tubes.

He said Magway is simpler to commercialise, primarily because it’s not transporting people at supersonic speeds and it doesn’t require a vacuum.

The system uses a magnetic wave of electrical current, generated by highly efficient linear synchronous magnetic motors to drive multiple, standard-sized crates (or totes) along a track. Travelling at an optimal speed of 31mph, and just milliseconds apart, the totes are propelled through a network of new and existing underground, overground and even suspended 0.9m diameter HDPE pipes that would run alongside existing road and rail routes.