Could he be ‘the Dutch Elon Musk’? Tim Houter, part of a team that won a SpaceX contest to develop super-speed hyperloop transport is setting up a full-scale testing lab, reports the Volkskrant.

The technology involves a shuttle running through a tube where there is little or no air, so friction is minimised and a journey from Amsterdam to Paris could – theoretically – take just 30 minutes.

In January a team of engineering students from Delft University of Technology won top prise in a competition inspired by Tesla’s Musk to design a futuristic type of transport.

Now Houter, from that team, has co-founded Hardt Global Mobility to commercialise their technology. On Thursday he opened a testing centre for the technology, with the help of investment from TU Delft, NS railways and construction company BAM.

‘In this facility we will test all systems that don’t require high speeds,’ Houter told Reuters. ‘So think about the levitation system, but also the propulsion system. All the safety systems will be tested in this low-speed but [in a] full-scale testing facility.’