Posted on 12/20/2019 5:39:00 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Development of a proposed hyperloop transportation system linking Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Chicago would not only be a boon to communities along the travel corridors but also would be a strong business investment.
That’s the conclusion of a 157-page feasibility study released Monday in Cleveland by the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency and Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc., a California-based company developing the technology to move passengers and freight at more than 500 mph through low-pressure tubes. Consultant Transportation Economics and Management Systems performed the $1.3 million study of the proposed Great Lakes Hyperloop System.
For the first time, the study estimated the costs of building the high-speed alternative to transportation by regular rail service and aviation. It said the cost to build the entire system would be about $40 billion, but investors could expect an operating profit of $30 billion during its first 25 years of hauling passengers and freight.
“The financial and economic results are unprecedented, illustrating a strong case for the public-private partnership to continue working to bring hyperloop to the Great Lakes corridor,” the study said. “Hyperloop will spur the New Economy service industries of finance, software and logistics; thus understanding the needs of the commuter population are paramount to maintaining a responsive service along the corridor.”
Alexander Metcalf, president of the consulting firm, stressed at a news conference at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland that the project would be a good business investment. The expectation is that any hyperloop project would be a public-private partnership, with the public providing rights of way and stations and private investment paying capital costs for the tubes and technology.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Why is air travel popular and profitable.
The equipment is not limited in the path it can travel.
The most efficient travel does not have very much path restriction on the equipment. It can go this way or that.
The least efficient passenger ground transporation is trains or anything like them that must travel a dedicated path.
The most efficient is the road-highway system that has the least path restrictions, so a route may use any number of alternate paths from point A to point B, and thus where stops can be made or can be avoided as unnecessary may be chosen, as well as selecting for all sorts of variables.
The one advantage trains have over trucks is the total heavy payload possibilities, for freight, on very long haul routes. That was total tonnage, not speed, is the advantage.
I have not seen the rationale for how hyperloop systems change the transportation equations. I think the backers simply avoid what is already known about the limitations of fixed-path ground (or underground) transport. For passenger travel they require sufficient population density living along the fixed path and with demand within that population for going along that path. That has so far only been present in the U.S. on the Northeast Corridor path between Boston, through New York, Phildelphia, Baltimore to Washington D.C. It is maybe the one profitable long distance passenger train corridor in the U.S.
The Pittsburgh-Cleveland-Chicago population (and population density) is many times smaller than that on the Northeast corrider, and yet the hyperloop promoters expect a form of transport likely to be more expensive than that on the Northeast corrider today is going to be financially supported by the demands of the Pittsburg-Cleveland-Chicago population. I seriously doubt it.
The flying car is likely to be in use before hyperloop trains come up from underground.
If it ends up like that, look for another Trainhenge, along the lines of the partially built bridges for Cali’s high speed rail boondoggle.
I’d prefer that the private interests fund the stations, too, since that way, they would be more likely to pick locations that would draw a lot of people, rather than having stations in every podunk town.
Do you know what the speed limit was on the old Distressway? When I traveled north on 93 through the tunnel in 2015, it was THIRTY-FIVE mph in the south part and FORTY-FIVE in the north part. I slogged my way through the facility (going a little faster than that, of course) and ended up wondering why they ever did it.
(The I-90 Extension tunnels to the airport, which I drove through in 2007, were 50 or 55 mph, if I remember correctly.)
I’m sure there are examples across the nation.
Our lost in space bullet (shooting blanks) train across the state is another black hole, sucking in funds that should be used on other projects.
We have rapid transportation across the state right now, with aircraft leaving numerous times per day. We didn’t need that rail system. There’s no justification for it on any level.
First of all, electric commuter short and mid-range aircraft are coming. Their carbon footprint will be zero. Hey, Leftists agree on that. So what’s the need for the bullet blunder?
What we need are desalinization plants on the coast.
Israel now gets upwards of 80% of it’s domestic use fresh water from desalinization plants.
“Israel’s first desalination plant was built in Ashkelon in 2005.
Today, up to 80 per cent of water for domestic use flows from large coastal desalination plants in Sorek, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Palmachim and Hadera and more are under construction, including Sorek B, planned to be the world’s largest, with a capacity of 200 million cubic metres of water a year.”
California leadership (and I use that word advisedly), wake the hell up.
We need desalinization plants along the coast. There’s no question California cannot meet it’s fresh water demands in times of drought.
Desalinization could resolve these issues.
1. bring an abundant supply of fresh water to market from the Pacific Ocean
2. if designed properly, provide a new source of energy from each plant location
3. Allow northern state communities to have access to their water keeping their lakes and streams fully functioning
4. relieve pressure on the Colorado river, allowing it to recover from being sapped dry by municipalities across the western U. S.
as with all intercity mass transit, regardless of mode, be it bus, train, or hyperloop,the real problem is now to travel to and from the station in City A and to and from the Station in City B ... even if one could be moved from City A to City B and then back again at the speed of light AND the trips were free, then what? rent a car? taxicab? Jitney? take a bus? ride a bike? walk?
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