[DogByte6RER]

"tube-transport will catapult you from New York to Beijing" ...

Why would I ever want to even be in either New York or Beijing?

[hattend]

Imagine the tube burn you would get if you hit the side of the tube at 4000 miles per hour.

Plus all the blood, guts and vomit that would be lining that thing, the smell would be intolerable.

[SoothingDave]

A vacuum tube going to Philly wouldn’t take any energy at all.

Cause Philly sucks!

#Pensin7

[Grut]

Trains in evacuated tubes isn't a new idea: I remember reading an article with a similar proposal (wheels, though, not maglev) in a Scientific American about fifty years ago. Actually more elegant, since the trains 'fell' down a ramp, rolled along a subterranean track and climbed another ramp into the next station, bringing them to a stop. All done by gravity, with the only energy input needed being to overcome the friction losses involved in rolling.