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"Futurama-inspired vacuum tube travel could get you from NYC to London in an hour."

The unusual travel tech has proven successful in a laboratory setting, but has yet to make its way into the real world. The biggest barrier to the technology is, predictably, the cost. A 350mph local system would cost about $2 million per mile to install. Once built, however, the system would cost very little to operate — according to Oster, the cost of travel will be less than a penny per mile.
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Is that your Futurama-inspired vacuum tube linking NYC to London or are you just happy to see me?
 
Do not want to be stuck in a claustrophobic tube environment for an hour. Do not want to be stuck in the middle of the Atlantic (or elsewhere) when the tube transport breaks down or suffers an inconvenience. Aside from other potential issues that make it unsafe or unable to handle intended traffic.
 
Marlfox said:
Do not want to be stuck in a claustrophobic tube environment for an hour. Do not want to be stuck in the middle of the Atlantic (or elsewhere) when the tube transport breaks down or suffers an inconvenience. Aside from other potential issues that make it unsafe or unable to handle intended traffic.
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because being on a plane is so much different.
 
maboblivion said:
Wouldn't wanna see what happens when it clogs up....
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fort-lauderdale-plumber1-optimized.jpg


No worries! We have technology for that sort of problem.
 
If someone does it I want to ride it! Of course, after filling myself with egg salad & garlic sandwiches, spicy chili and the like. :D

With my luck I would probably end up behind Mitt Romney, who would have his dog strapped to his back. :eek:
 
DrDoug said:
If someone does it I want to ride it! Of course, after filling myself with egg salad & garlic sandwiches, spicy chili and the like. :D

With my luck I would probably end up behind Mitt Romney, who would have his dog strapped to his back. :eek:
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Could you imagine getting stuck under the middle of the Atlantic? :p

How long until rescue crews could get there? :p
 
Zarathustra[H];1038838120 said:
Could you imagine getting stuck under the middle of the Atlantic? :p

How long until rescue crews could get there? :p
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At least the view would be nice...

Oh look! There's the Titanic!
 
DrDoug said:
At least the view would be nice...

Oh look! There's the Titanic!
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I think the system is intended to be bored into tunnels UNDER the water in the bedrock. :p



Another concern I'd have with a system like this, would be resistance to seismic activity and tectonic plate shifts.
 
Sign me up to alpha test the atlantic tube, that would be so great:D

It would be bad ass if they did this with the mail. Getting your mail at 4k mph would be so fast, you would have about 1 hour delivery time ,max, on most items. hell prossesing would take longer than mailing stuff.:p

So whats to bad about getting stuck in a tube, atleased you dont smash into the water going a few hundred mph and blow into a million peices.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038838193 said:
True, but lets use their example of a line from New York to London...

The distance between the two is - what - 3500 miles?

That's $7B...
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7 billion isn't that much, Look at the financial bailout which was around 700 times that. Plus it would be beneficial for both nations, so it would most likely be a joint effort in construction.
 
Depending the the capactiy this rail can handle 2 million per mile is not bad at all; ~7 billion to cross the USA.

The 2 million per mile is "only" quoted at 350 mph though; not he 4000mph.

Less than ~$35 to cross the usa (assuming the less then a penny per mile quote holds).

Here's a sampling of project construction costs:

+ SR 18 widening in rural King County - about $24.5 million per mile.
+ US 12 widening south of Tri Cities - about $3.7 million per mile.
+ I-5 widening in Vancouver – about $20.2 million per mile.
+ I-90 truck climbing lanes east of Cle Elum and at Vantage – about $1 million per mile.
+ I-5 HOV lanes from Tukwila to Fife – about $7 million per mile.

These costs are for construction only and do not include costs for engineering and design and for a widely-varying factor, land acquisition costs.
Sources: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003469356_highways09m.html
 
I don't think you would biuld this over the ocean until the rail was proven. I think across the usa or across euro would work though.
 
Yeah $7B is less than half California's state budget *deficit*. Chump change.

The $2M/mi estimate is based on a 'local system', and still seems low. The cost would be significantly higher for crossing the Atlantic. There are some big (solvable) engineering issues that would need to be overcome in that situation to drive the price up considerably (without taking a longer trip) that may make it not worth it for a while.

However, tubes crossing the US or Europe would be doable with less risk and be easier to maintain. Or maybe even trans-Asia, I could see China signing up for it. However, the cost for operation would probably rise in many continental cases (even outside of security costs) due to shorter trips.

They're claiming it's very energy efficient to operate for long distances, but the cost to operate would probably go up for shorter trips due to acceleration and deceleration losses. New York-LA is only ~2500 miles, and the longest big city separation in the US, but it wouldn't be a straight shot. A New York/Houston/Los Angeles/Chicago network connecting the major US cities would be pretty cool. And once you got good at it, gauged interest, and hopefully made some profit, we could add in some of the smaller cities like Seattle/San Francisco/Atlanta/Dallas/San Diego/San Antonio/Denver (I'd add in Seattle/Denver/Atlanta first just to provide better continental coverage).
 
Worth the investment.

Going from Chicago to New York in less than an hour means I can either work at Chicago or New York and I can live at either place too. This would be a huge boon to economies because this pretty much opens up the "region lock" held at most places.

The return would probably been seen in the same year it was built.
 
Ah jeez not this shit again. This comes up every few months. Leave it for mail in big buildings, and the bank drive thru (and Tenacious D).
 
Hmm...I thought the biggest stumbling block would have been stopping at the other end, as Futurama demonstrated in the first episode.

And it will bring a whole new meaning to the pipes being clogged up.
 
Dreaz said:
Worth the investment.

Going from Chicago to New York in less than an hour means I can either work at Chicago or New York and I can live at either place too. This would be a huge boon to economies because this pretty much opens up the "region lock" held at most places.

The return would probably been seen in the same year it was built.
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Holy crap, that's right. I wonder if we'd see a similar boom that occured when cars and public transit were first adopted, letting people live even further away from their workplace.
 
Outamyhead said:
Hmm...I thought the biggest stumbling block would have been stopping at the other end, as Futurama demonstrated in the first episode.

And it will bring a whole new meaning to the pipes being clogged up.
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Depending on how tightly the car fit in the tube, they could simply increase the air pressure on the receiving side of the tube and then gently lower it again to bring the car to a gentle stop.
 
"At those speeds, you would arrive at your destination at a time before you left."

...stupid, tube-travel, time-machine only works westbound (to a point)
 
ballistic90 said:
Depending on how tightly the car fit in the tube, they could simply increase the air pressure on the receiving side of the tube and then gently lower it again to bring the car to a gentle stop.
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As I'm reading it though, these are not pneumatic tubes, so the pressure won't have anything to do with the propulsion.

They are vacuum tubes, with the air removed so there is no air resistance.

The car would travel inside the vacuum tube using something similar to current mag-lev technology.
 
Another complication is that while the system may have a top speed of 4000 mph, the human body, especially the elderly, sick and frail can not accelerate very rapidly and maintain healthy.

If for a combination of health and comfort, we limit acceleration of the car to half of the acceleration due to gravity, so 0.5G, it will take just over 200 miles to reach the full 4000mph velocity.

This means that for trips shorter than ~405 miles, you would never reach full speed. For trips exactly 405 miles long, you'd accelerate for the first half of the trip, hit max speed and then immediately start decelerating again.

It would be ideally suited for long trips.
 
Wow, this type of travel would really suck. Or blow. Or however they make it work.

It would be pretty cool.

Oh, and someone post the obligatory "Magnets, How do they work?" pic!
 
Many of you clearly do not understand what a vacuum is, G-force, capsule, and magnets.

Here's a picture to entertain you
ITSP.jpg


Anyway,

Military could start testing this out. You could build it alongside major highways so you don't have to worry about private property. Unlike traditional rail, this system would be easy to elevate above ground because it's lightweight.
 
mastaBlasta said:
Military could start testing this out. You could build it alongside major highways so you don't have to worry about private property. Unlike traditional rail, this system would be easy to elevate above ground because it's lightweight.
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That's a pretty good idea... along side existing highways or maybe even next to/above railroad tracks (kind of like the elevated trains in some cities). The basic foundation for mapping out the infrastructure is already there!

This would be the next AmTrak and Greyhound all rolled in to one.
 
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