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.

source: new york times

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.

Via

  • @AnticorpEnglish
    12•7 months ago

    California actually spent billions on a high speed rail without laying a single mile of track. I guess someone got rich from that.

    • @[email protected]English
      15•7 months ago

      You have to spend billions before laying track. That’s true of any high speed rail. They’ve done a lot of groundwork and built a lot of structures, and they should be laying some track relatively soon.

    • @[email protected]English
      4•7 months ago

      they have to build all the structures and clear hundreds of miles of flat straight land to put the tracks on first

    • OptionalOPEnglish
      -12•7 months ago

      So you’d prefer a single mile of track? I mean, depending on where the track was, that might be pretty cool.