Quote:
Originally Posted by Onkel Neal
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It is impressive as a theoretical experiment, but, as you point out, the reality is problematic. The sheer cost is a massive cost benefit nightmare and the technical, logistical, security and maintenance questions will be hard to deal with; even now, conventional rail travel has had restrictions and requirements somewhat akin to air travel; with what could only be presumed to be a very high value target for possible terror attacks, what is really the upside to the hyper loop, other than for cargo? Take the Los Angeles to San Francisco run: 50 minutes may seem rather rapid, but the reality is the actual air distance is only about 400 miles (a bit over 640 km); a normal flight time for commercial passenger airlines from the gate at LAX to the gate at SFO is about 50-55 min, literally no real gain. Of course the actual trip time doesn't take into account the early arrival at the airport to check-in, check luggage, and go through the whole TSA rigmarole and then having to reverse the process at the destination, adding at least a couple of hours to the whole trip. I really doubt the prep and inspect will be any less with the hyperloop, so, meh..
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