Not so friendly reminder that musk specifically came up with, and pushed, for hyperloop knowing that it would never be made, as an effort to stop the development of highspeed rail in America and shift all political discussions of it because “something better is around the corner”:
As I’ve written in my book, Musk admitted to his biographer Ashlee Vance that Hyperloop was all about trying to get legislators to cancel plans for high-speed rail in California—even though he had no plans to build it. Several years ago, Musk said that public transit was “a pain in the ass” where you were surrounded by strangers, including possible serial killers, to justify his opposition.
Also: 2024 update, the total length of China’s high-speed rail tracks has now reached well over 45,000 km, or 28,000 miles, by the end of 2023.
They are additionally five years ahead of schedule and expect to double the total number within ten years. And, before someone inevitably complains about “how expensive it is”, they are turning over a net-profit of over $600M USD a year.
I think they’re already doing somewhat higher speed rail on the east coast with the Amtrak Acela? 160 mph from my quick googling.
As they build up the speed across different sections of the network, there will be even more demand than there is now, since faster travel makes it work better for peoples’ needs. Then it’ll be more profitable and they can reinvest it.
Not, not really
The Acela is a pathetic excuse for HSR. If you’re going from Boston to DC, it only really saves a couple hours compared to the normal train, and it’s still like 6 jours more than flying (or something like that). According to Wikipedia, the fastest scheduled time between Boston and NY is 3hr30m, which averages to 66mph. That’s not really high speed. The problem is theres only a few places the track actually allows for high speed
I believe there is a construction project to allow high speed for a few miles in New Jersey, so that may be coming in a few years
One specific issue that is still unanswered is there is no reasonable path forward to high speed where it goes along the coast of Connecticut between Providence and New Haven.