Railroad Forums 

  • Hyperloop and other vactrains

  • General discussion of passenger rail systems not otherwise covered in the specific forums in this category, including high speed rail.
General discussion of passenger rail systems not otherwise covered in the specific forums in this category, including high speed rail.

Moderators: mtuandrew, gprimr1

 #1510901  by lpetrich
 
BART picks a fight with Elon Musk on Twitter over tunnels - SFGate

It started when Elon Musk tweeted a link to a Boring Company FAQ page: "Boring Company guide to why tunnels are awesome & safest place to be in an earthquake."

Someone tweeted in response "Tunnels are great things to run trains through. Not cars."

EM responded "Opposite is true: you can have 100's of layers of tunnels, but only one layer on surface (to first approximation), therefore trains should be on surface, cars below"

BART's official Twitter account responded "We carry 28,000 people per hour through our Transbay Tube under the bay because of the capacity of a train. That's nearly twice as much as cars over the bay. Why wouldn't you prioritize something that carries far more (and safely with automatic train control) over cars?"
 #1510958  by mtuandrew
 
I love the BART Twitter and transit Twitter in general. The BART social media team just doesn’t give a (hoot) and are willing to tell it like it is - “delay” becomes “a collision with a person”. They also make sure Elon Musk doesn’t get to claim a tunnel is better for any one mode of transportation - especially one with a habit of meltdowns and fire regardless of that car’s power source.
 #1612083  by lpetrich
 
I've thought of a way to improve the safety of vactrains against air leaks. It's an extension of the airlock concept without the trains having to stop for each airlock. Put doors along the length of the tube, and open them far enough in advance of each train to allow that train to travel without slowing down or stopping.
 #1612089  by RandallW
 
Speaking of imaginative transportation ideas: Elon Musk’s Boring Company Ghosts Cities Across America (WSJ) (MSN alternate link)

If the Hyperloop is anything like the Boring Company, its being run to prevent investment in public transportation infrastructure, not provide compelling alternatives to existing modes of public transportation.
 #1617910  by dizelinr
 
djlong wrote: Tue Oct 30, 2018 9:52 am Well, now we have prototypes, including full-scale models. Bit by bit, piece by piece, it's happening. So far, nobody seems to have run into any showstoppers. That's not to say they *won't* - but let them keep trying until they do.
Well it's now 2023 and Hyperloop "projects" (barely proposals) all over the world are looking deader than ever. Anyone care to try to convince us this is "really happening"? Speaking of "showstoppers" news of late has been nothing but showstoppers. Last year Virgin Group pulled all funding and scrubbed its name from this venture and what was once Virgin Hyperloop One is now just back to being Hyperloop One. This past February rival venture HyperloopTT planned to merge with Forest Road Acquisitions to provide funding for them to go public but Forest Road bailed on them as well finding the concept not viable in todays market conditions. The latest news from Polish venture Nevomo (with funding support from SNCF) seems more like a reinvention of the cable car except using maglev technology for propulsion alone but still relying on steel wheels. Nothing particularly "Hyperloop" about it.

As of now and for the last 4 months Hyperloop One still cannot manage to provide a functioning website. They shifted their focus from passengers to freight but since when does freight that has been sitting on a cargo ship for 3 weeks suddenly need to get somewhere in 10 minutes? Not sure about you but to me this does not exactly scream "the future". Everything about it screams "so 10 years ago" when promotors of the concept kept embarrassing themselves by repeating tired and cliche catch phrases from TED Talks such as "inventing the future" and making simplistic comparisons to what "people use to say about the Wright brothers."

Furthermore the certain individual who re-popularized discussion of the 100 year old concept revealed to his biographer that he never actually intended for the Hyperloop to become a reality. It was simply a diversion to erode public support for the California High Speed Rail project and other budding HSR proposals throughout America. It was a political tool more than anything else and in that sense perhaps it succeeded in fulfilling its one an only objective. The Hyperloop at its core is all about securing the dominance of the private automobile in American life. Why do all the hard work of funding and developing effective public transit systems when fantasy concepts will theoretically make them obsolete? The fact that Hyperloops will never become reality is considered the feature not the bug.

Looking back now it's totally cringe what people were saying 5 to 10 years ago about this so called "visionary" that "just wants to save the planet and can do no wrong". The real visionaries were the people involved in the nuts and bolts at local planning level advocating for changes they would like to see such as better bus service so they can simply get to the train station in time to catch the train that will take them to work. The Hyperloop concept thrived on the naïveté of lay people including a media too eager to do cut/paste jobs repeating press releases from Hyperloop companies at their word and forego asking of any difficult questions.
 #1617917  by dizelinr
 
djlong wrote: Thu Oct 18, 2018 7:43 am He took over a small startup car company that had produced nothing and built electric cars that *nobody* thought possilbe (and, full disclosure, I own a Tesla Model 3).
And, full disclosure, I DO NOT own a Tesla Model 3.

Whatever car brand I drive I don't feel obligated to represent the interests of its CEO. Frankly I don't even have a clue of their name and that's the way I like it.
 #1618267  by Literalman
 
And for anybody confused by the negative meaning of "showstopper" here, the writers mean something like "roadblock." The ordinary meaning of "showstopper" is good: part of a performance that draws so much applause that it temporarily brings the show to a stop. Not applicable to hyperloop, which seems more like dead in the water.
 #1629170  by RandallW
 
Nevomo hails magnetic levitation test success
POLAND: Technology company Nevomo has announced the successful completion of tests to demonstrate the potential for passive levitation of vehicles on existing railway infrastructure.
[...]
Nevomo has its roots in the hyperloop concept first hypothecated by entrepreneur Elon Musk as ‘the fifth mode of transportation’; the company was originally branded Hyper Poland. However, the business has since moved away from the hyperloop idea to focus on using linear motors to enhance the performance of existing railways.
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