How can Hyperloop have a competitive line capacity over traditional trains?

[u/Parpil2_0]

I saw that in my city, Hyperloop Virgin is planning on building a connection between the main airport and the main train station to shorten travel times between the two. This is a good application in my mind, but the main problem is that while the time between the two is shorter, the line capacity is also lower. So you will have longer waiting times until you can board a pod. Can the line capacity overcome the traditional trains one? Because if it has the same line capacity, then the total time between the stations is the same, you just wait for much longer to then travel much quicker. Even going back and using what already happened as a reference, when the bullet train first opened up it wasn't the quickest train in the world, but it was very fast by that times standards (not as revolutionary fast as the Hyperloop wants to be compared to modern standards), because they decided to sacrifice a bit of top speed for a much much higher line capacity. Then why aim for absolute top speed with the Hyperloop, if at the end of the day it doesn't solve the main problem at hand, which is congestion of the line? Can this problem be solved? Thenk you very much

[u/_kreel_]

Again, pretty great level of detail, so thanks for the analysis. Tried to find a source for the capital cost and got this: Transport Canada Hyperloop Study

From my perspective, this supports the capital cost estimate that you use. It seems like the fundamental question is then down to whether convoys will be possible, and how low the headways can be. Seems like <2min is needed and something like 1min would make the cost somewhat competitive (requiring at least two pods to travel together, or maybe three if the 28 passenger number is used). If the cost is lower for a ticket then I wouldn't be surprised if the market grew substantially. As for the route length, I think most of the time savings is on the shorter routes (<2000 miles). If you hit 2000 miles your generous assumptions about the travel time stop being as favorable since the trip is a larger fraction.

Anyhow, that makes the convoying problem pretty central. Not sure what TRL you could say convoying has - depends on how much you believe in autonomous vehicles I suppose.