Virgin Hyperloop laid off 100 staff members

Virgin Hyperloop has laid off half of its staff in a bid to focus on cargo operations.

The transportation technology company, a subsidiary of Richard Branson’s hyperloop, said that they wanted to change direction due to global chain issues and other challenges. 

After getting rid of the firm’s management, Virgin Hyperloop made more than 100 of its staff redundant so that they can focus on the train’s cargo rather than passengers.

The Financial Times reported that company informed their employees of the redundancy through a video conference.

The company commented in a statement: “It’s allowing the company to respond in a more agile and nimble way and in a more cost-efficient manner”.

“These types of decisions are never taken lightly. It really has more to do with global supply chain issues and all the changes due to Covid.”

Virgin Hyperloop told the BBC that they would continue to "address passenger mobility".

The company was originally founded in 2016 under the name Hyperloop Technologies and then changed its name a year later when Sir Richard Brandson took control of it.

Tesla’s chief executive Elon Musk originally came up with the idea of the hyperloop high-speed transport system in a 2013 research paper.

After managing to raise more than £300 million from their investors, in November 2020 the company successfully trialed its first ever journey carrying passengers at high speeds. 

DP World, a UAE logistics company with a 76 percent stake in Virgin Hyperloop, told the Financial Times that they were in talks with customers to lay Hyperloop routes to transport goods.