Here's a new word for you: hyperloop.
What's that you ask?
"a vacuum-tube transport network that could hurtle passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles at 760 miles an hour"
Yeah, you read that right.
A system of pneumatic tubes like at the bank drive-thru.... except for people.
It’s hard to overstate how dramatically the hyperloop could change the world. The first four modes of modern transportation–boats, trains, motor vehicles and airplanes–brought progress and prosperity. They also brought pollution, congestion, delay and death. The hyperloop, dubbed “the fifth mode,” would be as fast as a plane, cheaper than a train and continuously available in any weather while emitting no carbon from the tailpipe. If people could get from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in 20 minutes, or New York to Philly in 10, cities become metro stops and borders evaporate, along with housing price imbalances and overcrowding.
Huh? What?
Los Angeles to Vegas in 20 minutes?
That's like 600 miles per hour.
Wowzas!
Read more about the hyperloop project in this article:
And realize that the project is still very much in its infancy:
There are dozens of engineering and logistical challenges that need solving, from earthquake-proofing to rights-of-way to alleviating the barf factor that comes with flying through a tube at transonic speeds.
Besides land acquisition and political concerns, the big concerns are creating a capsule system that feels comfortable and safe for passengers, and how to design a station to accommodate a continuous stream of pods coming and going—the Hyperloop will work more like a ski lift than a railroad.
Just recently, there's been talk of a test track/tube to be built in Texas:
And there are big plans to take this thing nationwide:
I have only been in a transport pod a couple times.
And that was going up/down the St. Louis Arch.
At slow speed.
Very slow.
And that was enough for me.
Out for now.......
Matt