

What Will the Federal Government do with Hyperloop? - joeco
http://consumersresearch.org/?p=62

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anologwintermut
The standard answer to articles that ask a question in the title is no. Or in
this case nothing.

One of the reason's California's proposed high speed railway was so expensive
was the politics involved in picking the route. It's also the same problem
Amtrak has. The northeast corridor would make money, but the routs going west
don't and are kept do to congressional pressure. The hyperloop's cost
comparisons don't factor that in at all(nor should they). But building it in
practice will be an issue.

The second part of the hyperloop's cost savings come from it being very light.
We could simply build very light rail transport on the same pylons. Replace
1,500 KG of batteries with overhead electric wire and use the excess weight
for a motor.

So the hyper-loops only real advantage is speed. Which is impressive, except
for the fact that it requires you to build a tube with surface variances less
than 5mm for several hundred miles, or the air barring will have problems. (or
maybe not, perhaps you could have dynamic air barring and high precision
topographic maps of the tunnel)

~~~
anigbrowl
_The hyperloop 's cost comparisons don't factor that in at all_

The budget summary at the end suggested $2.5 billion for land acquisition etc,
which made me think it's not a serious proposal.

~~~
anologwintermut
Even if $2.5 billion for land acquisition is realistic (if you build most of
it next to I5 and need a 10ft wide swath of land, it might be), the route
would never be approved by the california legislature. A large part of the
problem with infrastructure costs is politics, not engineering.

~~~
anigbrowl
It'd be more likely to be approved with only 2 endpoints, since the logical
thing then would be to make the route as short as possible. OTOH HSR's route
through the Central Valley is partly dictated by the availability of funding
from the federal government for development in that part of the state; if it
was purely up to CA I think it would just run along the coastline.

~~~
Aloisius
_> if it was purely up to CA I think it would just run along the coastline._

Actually, the only two cities it connects to in the Central Valley are among
the largest population centers in California: Fresno (#5 largest city in CA)
and Bakersfield (#9 largest city). By comparison, there aren't any large
population centers southwest of San Jose until you're almost to LA with maybe
the exception of Salinas.

Plus, if you want to swing up to Sacramento (#6 largest city) at a later
point, then going inland makes more sense.

The whole thing built out with all phases connects 9 out of 10 of the largest
cities in CA (Oakland is the only one left out).

~~~
tzs
I see Merced on all the maps on the state's HSR site, and Modesto and Stockton
on maps for later phases of the project. Where did you see it would only
connect to Fresno and Bakersfield?

~~~
Aloisius
Woops. I didn't see Merced.

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acqq
Anybody actually tried to imagine himself using it? It's rather claustrophobic
experience, suited more to the astronauts than normal people: you can only be
in some quite horizontal position, you can't even go to the toilet while
you're in the capsule, the luggage capacity seems to be quite limited... It
doesn't appear as something everybody would be ready to use?

If it could be bigger and more comfortable it seems it would be more usable
and with more chance not to fail. Then it would have sense to also be more
expensive to make it and maintain it.

~~~
zeteo
Well, the trip is only half an hour. Do people have better comforts on a metro
or bus commute?

~~~
acqq
Yes, people have orders of magnitude better comfort in metros and buses. You
can exit the city metro or the city bus every minute. You can sit, stand up
and walk in them. The buses for longer distances have the toilets and can stop
whenever somebody really needs it. Here you'd be locked in the slanted chair
for half an hour where you wouldn't be even able to stand up or stretch the
hands! Sounds awful and has real implications on the public acceptance.

Especially after the first case of somebody going sick after he enters the
tube and having to remain in it the next 29 minutes. Imagine you sitting next
to that person. Imagine you being that person. Imagine your kid being that
person. Imagine the press ("Mother watched her kid dying for 29 minutes in
Hyperloop"). Imagine the reactions. The project would be dead for good after a
few such cases.

You can't put normal people in the capsules for astronauts and just think
"what could possibly go wrong." Health issues and effects are real problems
and have to be considered. The public is used to car traffic accidents. It
won't be so for the whole new transportation suited only for astronauts. This
can be the start of the grand failure.

~~~
travisp
>Yes, people have orders of magnitude better comfort in metros and buses. You
can exit the city metro or the city bus every minute. You can sit, stand up
and walk in them. The buses for longer distances have the toilets and can stop
whenever somebody really needs it.

This is not universally true.

For example, here in New York, the express bus from Staten Island has at least
45 minutes of no stops and has no bathroom (just a regular bus). If you do
somehow convince the driver to let you off, good luck finding a bathroom
anywhere near the places you'd probably find yourself. Some of the Subway
trains (such as the N train between Canal St and Atlantic Ave) run express and
is about 10 minutes non-stop (and you're a long trek from a bathroom at either
end).

Plus, try going to the bathroom in the first or last 30 minutes of a flight.
You have a reasonable chance of being arrested.

~~~
free652
It's totally true about NYC, you picked an extreme case of the SI express bus.
And if you're sick the bus driver will drop you off.

> (and you're a long trek from a bathroom at either end).

And that's total BS. The long trek is less than 5 minutes on either side.

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_delirium
This is a pretty thin hook to hang a political rant on. Summary of the
article: there is a gasoline tax, and there are aviation taxes. Therefore,
taxes will stifle the hyperloop! Government bureaucrats!

More likely answer to the headline question: they will do the same thing with
the hyperloop as with the maglev (ignore it).

~~~
anigbrowl
Not a real consumer research site either - operator obviously bought up a
defunct brand and relaunched it:
[http://consumersresearch.org/?p=6](http://consumersresearch.org/?p=6)

~~~
_delirium
Interesting; quite long-lasting zombie. An organization founded in 1929, but
which basically died in 1936, and is somehow still being resurrected today!

Seems it was the precursor of _Consumer Reports_ , but _CR_ was founded when
the majority of the staff left in 1936 and founded a new publication. In the
77 years since, it seems the old organization's main achievement is still...
that place everyone left to found _Consumer Reports_.

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pbreit
I don't understand the article. Surely a project like this would be public,
not private?

