Hyperloop One demonstrates near-supersonic transportation technology's proof of concept in Nevada

The co-founders of a start-up that aimed to usher in a new dimension in transportation said they had tasted the first success in the effort.

Hyperloop One successfully demonstrated yesterday a key component of the technology they would deploy to send people and cargo through cushioned tubes at speeds approaching that of sound. The alternative transportation according to its supporters, could cut the commute time between Los Angeles and San Francisco to just 30 minutes.

''We are standing on hallowed ground for us,'' said Shervin Pishevar, cofounder of Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One, which is among a few companies focused  on the hyperloop technology, USA Today reported.

But the investors and journalists who made it to the desert north of Las Vegas, saw something much more rudimentary than artists' rendering of the future of transportation. It was rather like a proof of concept, much like the first airborne moments shared by the Wright Brothers in their airplane.

A bare-metal sled, not a tube, shot down a track, with the sled elevated slightly by magnetic levitation technology. Accelerating at 2G-force it hit a patch of sand 100 yards down the line.

The test was over in two second, but it was enough, according to Hyperloop One's founders, to show that technology similar to that used in high-speed maglev trains could be deployed more cheaply, without the steep cost of high-tech trains and rails.

"This is about validating the hardware and software,'' said Hyperloop One co-founder and chief technology officer Brogan BamBrogan. ''We're aiming to hit 400 mph in two seconds.

A full-scale test is expected to happen by the end of the year in a best case scenario, according to Hyperloop One, which had been called Hyperloop Technologies until Tuesday.

However, according to commentators, that alone would still not signal that the hundreds of millions of dollars going into hyperloop research represented a sure bet. Questions remained about what exactly the systems would look like and who would pay for them and though significant development was happening in California and Nevada, early signs pointed to the first hyperloops coming to Europe - if they materialised at all, they say.