Oh, Elon. Building Infrastructure for the Hyperloop Doesn't Work Like That

[Eugene]

Source: Wired

AARIAN MARSHALL
TRANSPORTATION
07.21.17 07:00 AM

OH, ELON. BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE HYPERLOOP DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT

Is this … is this really happening?

On Wednesday morning, Elon Musk made a strange announcement on Twitter: His Boring Company (yes, that's what it's called) had received “verbal government approval” to build an underground hyperloop, he said. The maglev-powered train thing would pass through New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore before terminating in good old swampy Washington, DC. All in twenty-nine minutes.

It sounded momentous—but “verbal government approval” isn’t a thing. A White House spokesperson said the administration had conducted “positive conversations” with Musk and Boring Company executives, but declined to comment beyond that.

Musk also acknowledged the project has a ways to go. “A verbal yes is obviously not the same as a formal, written yes,” Musk wrote in a Twitter direct message to WIRED. "It will probably take another four to six months to get formal approval, assuming this receives support from the general public.”

Bad news, Elon, my friend: The White House doesn’t have much power when it comes to rubber stamping gigantic, multi-state infrastructure projects.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/infrastructure-hyperloop-nope/

[DetlefK]

1. Why Hyperloop? Why not a simple high-speed-train?

Why would it have to be the Hyperloop?
Let's forget the technical challenges.
Let's forget the absolute nightmare-scenario that a malfunction or even an accident would be.

Let's ask one question: Why not an ordinary tunnel and an ordinary high-speed-train.

For example:
The german Inter-City Express (ICE) is topped at 200 km/h (even though it could go faster if the rails permitted it).
Random example: A distance of 380 km (236 miles) in less than 3 hours, INCLUDING stops inbetween.
Leave out the intermediate stops and we are still at less than 2.5 hours.
Make it a straight tunnel where you can safely go to maximum-speed, and we can shrink that to less than 2 hours.

Washington DC to NY is 226 miles.



Option A)
From Washington DC to NY in less than 2 hours, in a high-speed-train with restaurant, bar, Wifi and comfy seats with lots of leg-room.
$50 to $150 per one-way-ticket.
And the technology is already here and shovel-ready.
If there's an accident, the odds for your survival are not that different from other trains.

Option B)
From Washington DC to NY in 30 minutes, in a capsule where you are all alone and isolated.
Heaven knows what a ticket would cost.
Experimental technology.
If there's an accident, the odds for your survival are very, very bad.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. "... $50 to $150 per one-way-ticket."

Ummm, checking Acela....

$165?

https://www.wanderu.com/en/buses-and-trains/acela-schedule-tickets-182/

Disclaimers: book early and save, senior discount, etc.

ETA: whoa, maybe much more than that:

http://www.johnnyjet.com/the-good-bad-and-ugly-about-taking-amtraks-acela-express-train/

However, it’s not cheap during the week. A one-way ticket from New York to Washington two months in advance is $259 for business and $375 for first (the only two classes offered on Acela). But if you aren’t in a hurry, you can get cheap tickets ($49) on the Northeast Regional, which is frankly just as comfortable and only takes 50 minutes more. See screenshot above.

[DetlefK]

3. I was going by the prices for the german ICE.

That route I was using for comparison:
Economy-class and rebate -> about $50
Business-class and no rebate -> about $200

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. What city pair were you using? NT

[DetlefK]

5. That info is rather private. However...

This is the homepage of Deutsche Bahn. I used two cities I regularly travel back and forth, so I would rather not post such info on the internet.
https://www.bahn.de/p/view/index.shtml

About 380km apart, about 3 hour ride by ICE, a second-class ticket costs about €80/$50 including rebate.