Hyperloop One Reveals 10 Strongest Potential Hyperloop Routes In the World (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Hyperloop One wants to build a real, working Hyperloop -- but it'll need strong partners to make it a reality, across both industry and government. That's why, in part, it held a global competition requesting proposals for routes around the world. The winners of that competition have now been announced, and the resulting routes span the U.S., the U.K, Mexico, India and Canada. Hyperloop One has assessed each proposal from hundreds of teams who applied from around the world, examining the potential of each from the perspective of infrastructure, technology, regulatory environment and transportation concerns. As a result, it identified the strongest candidates [with four routes in the U.S., two routes in the U.K., one route in Mexico, two routes in India, and one route in Canada.]

The next step for each of these winning teams will be a validation process conducted with Hyperloop One to do some in-depth analysis on each route, establishing things like ridership forecast and building a fully fleshed out business case for each. Hyperloop One will be hosting workshops in each of the above countries to help with this process, and to meet with stakeholders and help establish necessary partnerships. Overall, Hyperloop One points out that these winning teams represent a combined population of almost 150 million people, with routes that would link up 53 urban centers around the world and span a total distance of 4,121 miles).

Comments

Re:"It'll need strong partners to make it a realit

[angel'o'sphere]

I don't think government investment is bad inherently; I think government contracts with companies making known good technologies is a good thing.
Probably 90% of the rail road systems in Europe, the Telecommunication land lines, the power infrastructure etc. was build by government owned "institutions" before it got privatized and "out sourced" to private companies.
Heck, the french power grid is still run by the government and is only private "on paper".

Re:And the BIGGER question is ..

[Dishevel]

Is Hyperloop cheaper long term? That still up for debate...

No. Not even close.
600 mile route is 1200 miles of tube. 1 each way.
IF you could do 300 foot sections of tube that would be about 24,000 bolted together seals. Shorter sections equate to many more seals.

If you put one expansion joint every 2000 feet, you would need about 3,500 of those. Each needing to move about 12" do to temperature expansion (Steel, low temp 40f high 110f).

If you can make the main joints last for 25 years on average before replacement (Not likely considering vacuum and shit.) would would be replacing 80 of them a month. Expansion joints lasting 10 years on average I think would be good. There you would be replacing about 30 of them a month.

That is 110 places a month that need to get replaced. If you never have them go bad out of sequence it is possible I guess if you start at one end and go down doing replacements methodically and were able to isolate from the rest of the system, pressurize, remove and install 20 normal sections and 8 expansion joints, re do the vacuum and open to the rest of the system once a week, every week and get it done between 11 PM and 6 AM so as to not kill service too badly ... If you could do great, get the best maintenance, the seals and expansion joints work wonders and last for LONG times. If you could do all that.


It would still be a clusterfuck.

Re:Security will be a b..ch

[Vadim Makarov]

Rail track sabotage is nothing new, and when done properly can lead to significant loss of life and service disruption. We still ride trains.