Back in the news — "Musk’s 'Hyperloop’ is feasible and should be nationwide"

[Paul F.]

davemchine wrote:
What is the advantage of the hyper loop over flying?

Even if the cost per ticket of hyperloop triples, and the ticket price of a flight is cut in half, hyperloop is cheaper to ride..

[rgG]

I'm in, but why wouldn't you connect Jacksonville to Orlando, so that you could get all the way from Atlanta to Miami on the thing? There is nothing between Jacksonville and Orlando that should hang them up, as far as typography. You can't get flatter than Florida.

[deckeda]

"Not in my backyard"

-- fill in you own local, selfish reasons here

My favorite type of "negotiation" is, "Oh, you say you only need my little 'ole area here to complete your section? No problem, just sign here. Price is firm."

[deckeda]

rgG wrote:
... You can't get flatter than Florida.

Nope, because Kansas.

[Uncle Wig]

They should've mapped out routes in China because that'll sure as hell never be built here. This is America!

[DavidS]

rgG wrote:
I'm in, but why wouldn't you connect Jacksonville to Orlando, so that you could get all the way from Atlanta to Miami on the thing? There is nothing between Jacksonville and Orlando that should hang them up, as far as typography. You can't get flatter than Florida.

Nothing between Atlanta and Washington, DC either. I guess that is because Amtrak already serves that route? ;-)

[rgG]

deckeda wrote:
[quote=rgG]
... You can't get flatter than Florida.

Nope, because Kansas.
Well, there is that.

[sekker]

Awesome!

Ye Grinches can go say Humbug elsewhere.

It's time for the U.S. to lead in easy transportation.

By the way, the idea of tube connections was in Robert Heinlein's novel Friday.

[davester]

sekker wrote:
It's time for the U.S. to lead in easy transportation.

That sure would be nice, although considering that we're so far behind compared to much of the world, I'd say that there's not a whole lot of support for that idea.

[Will Collier]

It's a very old idea (not that there's anything wrong with that, of course). Roddenberry included a vacuum rail line in a couple of failed early 70's TV pilots after Star Trek was canceled.

In engineering terms, the technologies and concepts are well-understood and straightforward. Logistically, it's an iron-plated bitch to pull off, especially on that kind of scale.