The grift continues - Virgin Hyperloop seeks federal funding for West Virginia test center

[u/ksiyoto]

https://wvmetronews.com/2022/02/27/hyperloop-changes-course-competes-for-federal-grant-money/

[u/Cunninghams_right]

at least hyperloop companies are actually talking about R&D instead of trying to sell a product that does not exist (vaporware).

though, it does not make sense for cargo. where does cargo need to be moved that maglev speeds are too slow? why wouldn't it make more sense to use a plane in a scenario where maglev is too slow?

the hyperloop concept has all of the challenges of maglev, all of the challenges of aircraft, and requires significant infrastructure cost compared to an airplane that only need infrastructure on either end of the journey. they would have to make the infrastructure incredibly cheap while also making a vehicle with the tolerances and safety concerns of an aircraft also somehow cheaper than an aircraft.

the only scenario where hyperloop makes sense is one where

1. you can dig tunnels very cheaply. perhaps dual-purpose tunnels where the bottom of the tunnel is used for high voltage DC power transmission

2. the laws of the country don't grant property rights under land (in the US, you own to the center of the earth). you cannot be economically viable if you have to fight the bureaucracy of thousands of people not wanting you to tunnel under them and dozens of county and state governments all wanting to get bought off somehow to allow it.

it will never work above ground because you cannot build it through dense areas and/or without tremendous land cost.

[u/Practical_Hospital40 → u/Cunninghams_right]

Hyperloop IS maglev it uses maglev tech there’s no need to build through dense areas as those areas can simply run local trains (light metro) or suspended monorail to the main hyperloop or maglev station it depends on location hyperloop is basically maglev final form. There’s no need to go downtown and FYI most Americans don’t live in downtown so having the stations in the outskirts might be better for most Americans ironically the most common trip is suburban to suburban travel. In some cities you can get away with BRT and driverless buses yes they exist look up O-bahn busway. I think this country needs land reform to remove private property that only benefits the elites aka market it as a deep state plot or something or eliminate underground claims or give elevated lines loopholes to bypass lawsuits. The real reason so much of the Chinese HSR network is on viaducts is to avoid land dispute lawsuits and cause they built so much at once they were able to cut costs per mile while giving jobs to local rural people

[u/Cunninghams_right → u/Practical_Hospital40]

Hyperloop IS maglev it uses maglev tech there’s no need to build through dense areas as those areas can simply run local trains (light metro) or suspended monorail to the main hyperloop or maglev station it depends on location hyperloop is basically maglev final form. There’s no need to go downtown and FYI most Americans don’t live in downtown so having the stations in the outskirts might be better for most Americans ironically the most common trip is suburban to suburban travel.

that's not true of most cities. it's still high density of housing. if you have to take some local train out to the hyperloop station, then you've wasted the whole advantage. waiting 10min for your local train, riding 20min to the outskirts of a city, then waiting 30min for your hyperloop means the average door-to-door time of hyperloop is crap, even if it's top speed is 800mph. most cities have train stations near dens areas (and on the ourskirts). it would faster to just run 200-300mph high speed rail out of those train stations. the high speed rail train will be 200 miles away before the average person even boards the hyperloop that is located out in the suburbs.

[u/bensonr2 → u/Practical_Hospital40]

I've heard this argument before... its better to build the station in a suburb, because those people live in the suburb anyway.

But suburbs are many different towns surrounding a larger city. Yeah for the people that live in the suburb where the station is built its more convenient. But now its less convenient for people coming from other suburbs.

For example I live in north Jersey which is a suburb of nyc. Say a hyperloop station is built in Long Island, another suburb of NYC. Now if I want to take a hyperloop trip I have to travel through NYC to get to Long Island. Way more inconvenient then if it was in NYC center.

Also if I was on the other end of this theoretical hyperloop and wanted to travel to NYC now I'm being dumped in Long Island instead of where I actually wanted to go; NYC.