The hunt for a new system of transportation which is low-cost, accessible, comfortable and as fast as (or faster than) air travel without the inconveniences and high carbon-cost of air travel is on.
Sure rapid air transport and bullet trains have been commonplace in countries around the world before, there has never been something that can be truly used the world over.
Transport which in theory, allows “the ability to go fast, minimising friction from moving parts and air resistance” and “the ability to counteract the gravitational pull of the earth”.
One such system is Hyperloop - from Elon Musk. Which is aiming to apply pneumatic tube technology to the human scale and allow interstate or inter-country transport (depending on your continent) aiming to build upon the principle of MagLev (Bullet) Trains but rather than riding along an electrified, magnetic rain.
Hyperloop will be built inside a giant tube, which will then be almost completely evacuated of air - almost completely removing the limitations of air resistance - which will allow the Hyperloop to accelerate and stick to much higher speeds than the MagLev currently can, Which at a current max speed of an astonishing 373mph seems unbelievable - however, removing the air within the tube and the physics sounds about right for reaching speeds of around 800 miles-per-hours.
Travelling a consistent 800mph to your destination, with legroom to spare sounds amazing.
In a straight line.
However, one of the major pitfalls of Hyperloop is the very simple fact that our Earth isn’t flat.
There is curvature, dips, valleys, mountains and all that lovely other scenery. Of course we can build bridges and avoid all of these things which is fine for the machinery itself to travel, but what about humans?
People can only tolerate high accelerations for a very short period of time - If you’ve ever been on a rollercoaster, you’ve felt that hit your stomach as you ride down a curve. At 800mph across curving landscapes and lines, that feeling of nausea is the major problem that Hyperloop needs to solve before it can be a sustainable solution.
It cannot shoot around tight corners or valleys at speed, or if travelling at those speeds, those corners or valleys need to be so carefully designed with the passenger in mind.
"Hyperloop is the closest new transport to being "passenger ready" and massively cutting those transport times could improve areas from commuting to haulage and everything our current train network is used for." Shivvy Jervis
