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Elon Musk's Boring Company has received permission to dig 10.1 miles of tunnel in Maryland:
On Thursday, Maryland officials gave Elon Musk's Boring Company permission to dig a 10.1-mile tunnel "beneath the state-owned portion of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, between the Baltimore city line and Maryland 175 in Hanover," according to the Baltimore Sun.
According to Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn, The Boring Company (which Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk founded to advance tunneling technology) wants to build two 35-mile tunnels between Baltimore and Washington, DC. The federal government owns about two-thirds of the land that Musk's company would need to dig underneath. As of Friday, it was unclear whether that permission had been granted. (A Department of Transportation spokeswoman told Ars that the land in question was owned by the National Park Service, which did not immediately respond to request for comment.)
But the 10 miles that have been approved by the state of Maryland will for the first leg of an underground system that could contain a Hyperloop system. Musk first floated the idea of a Hyperloop—which would ferry passengers through a low-pressure tube in levitating pods floating above a track using air-bearings—in 2013. But the CEO determined that he didn't have time to see his idea through to fruition, so he issued a white paper and challenged startups and students alike to make headway on the concept.
Also at The Washington Post (archive).
Previously: Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday October 23 2017, @01:18PM (4 children)
http://www.startribune.com/on-amtrak-s-fast-train-from-d-c-to-n-y-c/246415191/ [startribune.com]
So there is plenty of demand for our nation's fastest (as of 2014?) train service. But if you look at the previous article, Musk's Hyperloop could allegedly do it in 29 minutes instead of 2 hours, 45 minutes.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by donkeyhotay on Monday October 23 2017, @03:21PM (3 children)
Frazzled by airport security lines?
I don't think I'm too cynical when I say that they'll end up eventually having hyperloop security lines to deal with too. I mean, you'd have to be pretty naive to think that high-speed travel that's not in the air won't have any security concerns. The trip might only take 30 minutes, but you'll have to endure a 2-hour security line in order to take that trip.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday October 23 2017, @05:24PM (2 children)
TSA hasn't spread in earnest to the trains yet. However people still make it to their destinations alive somehow. Lucky for us, the cost of a ticket doesn't seem to cover the theater performance (yet).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Monday October 23 2017, @10:36PM (1 child)
To conventional trains, no. Terrorists and anti-terrorists alike don't think trains are cool enough to be attacked. Hyperloop will be different - it has had such publicity and a World-Wide high profile that security measures if/when it opens will be there in the extreme.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday October 24 2017, @03:02PM
Maybe. The big difference between airplanes and Hyperloop (or trains) is that it's utterly impossible to take over a Hyperloop pod (or train) and pilot it into a crowded building. With an airplane, it's pretty easy once you get into the cockpit.
It is possible to cause destruction to the Hyperloop which not only destroys a pod, but renders the tube unusable for a while (months?) until repairs can be made, which would be bad for transportation. But the death toll won't be that much. But the same can be said of an Amtrak Acela (though the tracks there are easier to repair), and TSA isn't bothering with those.