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In November, Washington, D.C.'s Department of Transportation granted the Boring Company a permit to excavate at a parking lot within the city:
Washington, D.C., has issued a permit allowing Elon Musk's Boring Company to do preparatory and excavation work in what is now a parking lot north of the National Mall. The company says the site could become a Hyperloop station.
The permit, reported Friday by the Washington Post, was issued way back on November 29th of 2017. The permit is part of an exploratory push by the city's Department of Transportation, which according to a spokesperson is examining the feasibility of digging a Hyperloop network under the city. The Hyperloop is an as-yet theoretical proposal to use depressurized tubes and magnet-levitated pods to move passengers at very high speeds.
From The Washington Post:
Asked about the permit, issued Nov. 29, a Boring Company spokesman said Friday that "a New York Avenue location, if constructed, could become a station" in a broad network of such stops across the new system.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) visited the Boring Company in California this month, walking in a tunnel to learn more about the technology the company says will make tunneling faster and cheaper.
The District's Department of Transportation is figuring out what other permits the Boring Company would need to cut under city roads and other public spaces, according to Bowser's chief of staff, John Falcicchio.
Previously: Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop
NY-Philly-Baltimore-DC Hyperloop: Not Vaporware?
Related: Hyperloop Pod Competition Winner Exceeds 200mph (324 km/h)
Sir Richard Branson Invests in Hyperloop
Elon Musk's Boring Tunnel Near Los Angeles
Elon Musk's Boring Company Sells Flamethrowers
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19 2018, @03:21AM (9 children)
If they aren't high enough the cost per passenger is going to be a lot higher than for normal light rail which can carry up to 20,000 passengers per hour.
Or is the real end game about public money being used to subsidize a high speed shuttle for rich people and their friends?
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday February 19 2018, @03:29AM (2 children)
If the risk profile means there is no TSA groping on the hyperloop, then the viability is better, as the choice is plane-with-TSA, or hyperloop without.
If the TSA get involved, then it won't be able to compete - rich people will use private helicopters or private planes.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday February 19 2018, @07:44AM (1 child)
When push comes to shove, it's easier to down a helicopter than to collapse a tunnel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday February 19 2018, @08:18AM
ROI for single explosive. If you get lucky, the plane or helicopter hits a building.
If the hyperloop goes pop, thousands could die.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday February 19 2018, @03:57AM (1 child)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday February 19 2018, @07:40AM
How many of who exactly?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday February 19 2018, @04:56AM (2 children)
Are we talking through a section of rail/tube, or passenger loading/unloading?
Through a section of tube, some rough numbers:
20,000passengers/hour / 10-20 passengers per car = 0.55 to 1.1 seconds between cars = 350 to 175 yards between cars at 700mph. That'd need some pretty fine automated coordination to pull off, but then if you've got demand for that sort of passenger carrying load you could potentially form ad-hoc trains as well, though that would increase peak load concentrations. on the tubes.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19 2018, @09:27AM (1 child)
20000 passengers per hour with 40 passengers per capsule = 500 capsules per hour = 7.2 seconds between capsules = 2.2 km between capsules.
20 passengers per capsule = 1000 capsules per hour = 3.6 seconds between capsules = 1.1km between capsules.
Assume capsule loading time of about 5 minutes you need about 40 to 80 "departure platforms" at a main station to keep up the throughput. Similar for arrival platforms.
The original number was 840 passengers per hour though: http://www.uschyperloop.com/hyperloop/ [uschyperloop.com]
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday February 19 2018, @04:40PM
You're right - I have no idea how I got an extra factor of 3.3 in my calculations.
As for the loading platform that's a completely different question - unless all those passengers are coming/going to the same station, there's no need for them to pass through it at all. That's one of the big draws of smaller car sizes, is you can just load everybody from station A heading to station M, and send them there directly, with no need for transfers or other stops along the way. At which point track capacity becomes a question of how well you can coordinate traffic splitting and merging.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday February 19 2018, @06:58AM
Once you use up all your bus subsidies the only thing you can do is spend your light rail subsidies.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]