Why Ultra-Efficient 4,000 mph Vacuum-Tube Trains Aren't Being Built

cylonlover writes "In the 1800s, when pneumatic tubes shot telegrams and small items all around buildings and sometimes small cities, the future of mass transit seemed clear: we'd be firing people around through these sealed tubes at high speeds. And it turns out we've got the technology to do that today – mag-lev rail lines remove all rolling friction from the energy equation for a train, and accelerating them through a vacuum tunnel can eliminate wind resistance to the point where it's theoretically possible to reach blistering speeds over 4,000 mph (6,437 km/h) using a fraction of the energy an airliner uses – and recapturing a lot of that energy upon deceleration. Ultra-fast, high efficiency ground transport is technologically within reach – so why isn't anybody building it? This article looks into some of the problems."

Comments

Liability

[robinsonne]

Who wants to accept the liability if passengers/surrounding objects get turned into goo when a tiny defect causes the 4000 mph object to decelerate in a not-quite-so-planned manner?

Re:Liability

[geogob]

Airlines?

Re:Simple

[NouberNou]

Trains are an economic disaster in the US, and it is not for any sort of engineering reason (you can look at pretty much any other industrialized modern country in the world and see that trains actually work out pretty damn well).

Re:The only answer for the USA

[Red Flayer]

Hah. I rode the train daily with Goldman Sachs guys who lived in houses I can barely *dream* of owning. The train was more convenient from Summit NJ to Manhattan than any other kind of transport, including helicopters (according to one of the guys, after his second paper-bag beer one Friday*). Apparently helicopter transport to NYC is a pain in the ass, because the helipads are not conveniently located -- either on the departing side or the arriving side.

*So every Friday, four GS guys who always sat in the same spot, would have beers on the train. One of the guys retired, and they need a fourth to occupy the seats -- they didn't want some random person sitting with them. They asked me to sit with them, it lasted about two months until circumstances made it better for me to commute by bus instead of train. These guys would pound a beer (or two) in Penn Station waiting for their train, then drink another one (or two) on the 40-minute train ride home... they jokingly said it was the ammunition they needed to deal with their wives for an entire weekend.

But I digress...

If you take the Morris & Essex express into Hoboken or NY, which skips all or almost all the stops in Essex county, you'd believe that it's only the *wealthy* who take trains.