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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).
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).
Remember folks, if they took away the hype it'd just be a plain old rloop.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
We used to travel this route very regularly, almost every weekend. No 8 Madras Mail leaving Bangalore City at 10PM, arrives at Madras Central at 5:30 AM. Return by No 7 Bangalore Mail. Same times. 3$ for ticket and 1$ for the sleeper berth. I don't think Hyperloop is going beat that price. Overnight is so convenient once you get a sleeper berth. Would this route be profitable in Hyperloop level investment? Not so sure.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
It'd be nice to be able to cross Canada coast-to-coast in 9 hours, I just don't see this happening.
If you could link Montreal to Toronto to Winnipeg to Regina to Calgary to Vancouver, that'd probably be pretty sweet. But while the prairies are nice and flat, Ontario's extremely variable in elevation, with a LOT of rock just under the surface, and it's not like the terrain to the west of Calgary is anywhere near flat.
There would be a massive amount of tunnelling through rock required, and I just don't see the demand for speed covering the infrastructure expense when we have standard rail for freight and flight for people in a hurry.
I love the Hyperloop concept, but I tend to look at suggested implementations as if I'm watching the Simpsons "Marge vs. the Monorail".
since Houston has to rebuild.
Duh.
I love the concept of the hyperloop, and think it could be made to work, but it just appears this company is a joke largely focused on PR and capital investment than actually focusing on engineering. Even clicking on their website you find Steve Jobs type quotes "come with me if you want to change the world" and so on.
Just recently they showed a video of the "first" vacuum hyperloop. Ridiculous countdowns, systems checks with different teams like they were launching a rocket, etc. The test was a *linear motor* and absolutely nothing new. I would have expected much more; in fact the SpaceX contest student teams seemed to be further along! It makes me embarrassed just watching those kinds of videos.
So really no surprise Musk recently announced his intention to give it a go himself.
Faster: depending on security check time, check in time before start and position of the endpoints in the cities: most likely.
Cheaper: most definitely.
Much cheaper, probably not. As in the USA the company running a hyper loop would like to price it close as possible but just below the competition.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
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".
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Given the speed of hyperloop transport, and it's reliance on precise positioning in an essentially vacuum tube (and, probably, tight spacing between vehicles) - it would be extremely easy to sabotage one and cause untold destruction and potential loss of life.
So, it stands to reason, security to screen hyperloop passengers would have to be more stringent than that of airlines. Personally, not looking forward to those cavity searches.
And yes, "this is why we can't have nice things".
That's true. I agree completely. I've seen first hand the results of privatizing government-owned monopoly services like transportation, electricity, gas, etc, and it's not pretty. As citizens we end up paying for things twice. Of course once privatization happens, re-nationalizing isn't pretty either. Then you pay for it all a third time.
Is Hyperloop cheaper long term? That still up for debate...
No. Not even close.
...
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.
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
It would still be a clusterfuck.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You can build conventional rail on elevated tracks. That's not an advantage, that's additional construction cost.
It would still be a clusterfuck.
How did people describe nuclear power in the 20s?
How did people describe steam power in the 1500s?