Texas Hyperloop Proposal

[Jeff Smith]

https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/global ... ross-texas

A global infrastructure company presented an idea to Central Texas transportation leaders that’s floundered multiple times before – a high speed rail that connects major cities in Texas.

Steven Duong of AECOM spoke at Monday’s CAMPO meeting about how Texas could benefit from a Hyperloop that runs along the I-35 corridor from Fort Worth to Laredo. The proposed route would include stops possible stops in Waco, Temple, Killeen, Austin and San Antonio.

Amid all the means of transportation that are part of their study including hyperloop, maglev, high speed rail, guaranteed transit, commuter rail and higher speed rail, Duong said Hyperloop provides the “highest upside” for Texas.

“So the thought here is we could have something that moved very quickly here that could move both passenger and maybe freight along a similar corridor. We can take cars off the highway and also provide a convenient trip for people between cities,” said Duong.

[Rockingham Racer]

I have to wonder how this dovetails with the Texas State Rail Plan. If at all.

[mtuandrew]

Along with your point, Rockingham Racer, I have to wonder how this would be cheaper than a Texas Central HSR extension. Hyperloop has never struck me as being a practical project for the amount of money Elon Musk claims to spend on construction.

It does seem to me this proposal banks on (DAL)-FTW-AUS-SAS as the main moneymaker segment. I have no idea how much traffic goes between Laredo and points north, but it doesn’t strike me as high-dollar traffic. (That is, Southwest and Amtrak regional would do well enough with loads, but Acela and its airline equivalent may not.)

[Albany Rider]

Another Hyperloop scam raises its head. Wonder if the company proposing tis has ever built an operating hyperloop ??


Tony

[Ken W2KB]

Another Hyperloop scam raises its head. Wonder if the company proposing tis has ever built an operating hyperloop ??


Tony

It is not a fly-by-night company; 2018 revenues were 20 billion dollars. If any entity can build one, this one can. See: https://www.aecom.com/about-aecom/

[Literalman]

A hyperloop moving "maybe freight"? I don't think for a minute that this project would get built, but maybe a hyperloop pod stuffed full of express mail and other overnight packages could work.

[ExCon90]

I'm still not clear on how one pod is supposed to slow down for an intermediate stop without impeding everything behind it.

[mtuandrew]

I'm still not clear on how one pod is supposed to slow down for an intermediate stop without impeding everything behind it.

Presumably they’ll have periodic passing tracks (passing tubes?), if nothing else for express trains. I haven’t a clue what happens if a train gets physically disabled somewhere in a tube though - it isn’t like one could just pop the doors open.

[ExCon90]

Evacuating passengers will be a challenge ... Conventional underground routes, like Eurotunnel, have a parallel escape tunnel between the two tubes with communicating passages at intervals. I don't recall reading about anything like that on Hyperloop. (Maybe hyper has an unintended significance here?)

[DogBert]

This is vaporware. If Texas actually wants something like this they should go with something proven and scalable.

[DutchRailnut]

real question being is a hyperloop a train or is it big scale tube mail like as what was done in offices in 60/70's

[Jeff Smith]

Speaking of mail tubes: the original hyperloop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_Pneumatic_Transit

[Arlington]

It is not a fly-by-night company; 2018 revenues were 20 billion dollars. If any entity can build one, this one can. See: https://www.aecom.com/about-aecom/

I'm thinking AECOM will build whatever they can get somebody to fund. They're a serious builder, yes, but not a transportation owner-sponsor.

[ExCon90]

real question being is a hyperloop a train or is it big scale tube mail like as what was done in offices in 60/70's

A mail tube is what it sounds like, and they required a separate tube for each origin-destination pair.

[DutchRailnut]

these systems are to operate in vacuum ?? so how will we breath ?? operational or Emergency ?? anyone see risk ?