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What do you think of a Hyperloop between Edmonton and Calgary?

  • Total voters
    77
EdmTrekker said:
A gondola could not get built. I don't see how approval will be given for a river crossing for Transpod. The Province would need to take control and bully it through. If it is all above ground track the entire way and wins public support for a river crossing - let the private sector run with it.
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If it is 5-10 km like the article states then it will probably link up with the Capital Line extension at Heritage Valley (13km) or farther down the line (10km puts you at 41 Avenue) rather than downtown. Downtown as the crow flies from YEG to Government Centre Station is 25km.
 
Fetch said:
Heritage Valley (13km)
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What I find interesting is that they say five-ten km. I wonder if they mean that this will be a test track before they do a connection to the airport? Perhaps along some of the ROW, but to work out some big kinks before they go all-in with the first phase and launch commercial service?
 
^^^^ Agreed -- the distance between Calgary and Alberta is extremely miniscule. But the science is valid. I think that the test track, when completed, will put a lot of the negative poo-poohs to bed.
 
archited said:
^^^^ Agreed -- the distance between Calgary and Alberta is extremely miniscule. But the science is valid. I think that the test track, when completed, will put a lot of the negative poo-poohs to bed.
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I would not support a penny of public funds be provided to this hair brain scheme. Conventional hi-speed rail between both airports and downtowns (Edmonton and Calgary) may be all that is required ... and I am not convinced that is viable. Electric cars (also known as a private pod) will be used en mass 5-10 years. My daughter and her husband just bought 2 tesla's and ditched the Land Rover and Infinity. They installed their own charging stations in their garage and already part of a network that shares locations of hotels and businesses with electric plugs and stations in the West. If anything Alberta ought to be looking at what it can do to modernize the QE2 to allow for charging stations and a 4th lane in each direction.
 
Not sure who's heard about it, but on Tuesday night at least 14 vehicles were involved in a collision on the QEII north of Airdrie, 9 injured and 1 killed. Northbound lanes were closed for hours. "Poor weather, visibility and road conditions are suspected factors in the fatal crash." Is this the primary intercity transportation solution we should rely on as the corridor grows by millions? No matter how a vehicle is powered or if it has magic self-driving capabilities winter weather will be dangerous and slow to drive in. High-speed trains safely operate in snowy and frigid conditions all over the world.

TransPod on the other hand is a blatant investor scam. They don't even have a working prototype that can demonstrate simple levitation or even propulsion that Hyperloop One and other maglev trains have been doing for decades. Even then, Hyperloop One has recently cut ties with Branson and Virgin, fired a hundred employees, and abandoned passenger transport in favour of cargo (which makes zero economic sense). I will be blown away if TransPod even breaks ground on a test track.
 
EdmTrekker said:
I would not support a penny of public funds be provided to this hair brain scheme. Conventional hi-speed rail between both airports and downtowns (Edmonton and Calgary) may be all that is required ... and I am not convinced that is viable. Electric cars (also known as a private pod) will be used en mass 5-10 years. My daughter and her husband just bought 2 tesla's and ditched the Land Rover and Infinity. They installed their own charging stations in their garage and already part of a network that shares locations of hotels and businesses with electric plugs and stations in the West. If anything Alberta ought to be looking at what it can do to modernize the QE2 to allow for charging stations and a 4th lane in each direction.
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What does adding another lane positively provide for the QE2?
 
EdmTrekker said:
Future population growth will occur all along theQE2 resulting in more traffic on that route using electric, hydrogen vehicles.
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This isn't coherent.
Having more electric/hydrogen vehicles does not lower emissions if it's not displacing ICE vehicles. And ICE vehicles drive on new lanes just as well as EVs.
 
Kind of hard to formulate an opinion on the matter, considering the technology is literally still in its infancy.

I will say this though. We are currently witnessing the rise of AI which has the capacity to solve technical and engineering challenges exponentially faster than the collective effort of humanity ever could possibly achieve. We are seeing the development of advanced materials and processes that produce things thousands of times stronger than steel.

Our communications infrastructure is evolving so fast and so dramatically that people think it springs up magically and easily.

We are continuing to make groundbreaking breakthroughs in harnessing the power of stars. Which, advancements may increase at a faster rate considering the tools outlined above. This would allow for the development of advanced propulsion systems that have fuel to weight ratios millions of times greater than chemical propulsion. In our lifetimes, you may honestly see small vehicles powered by deuterium capable of traveling to space.

I’m not a futurist, and I too am skeptical of the hyper loop technology as it is currently too early in its development stages to tell where the tech will go. But I certainly wouldn’t have any passionate opinions on the matter because the things we are currently building right now open limitless possibilities regarding the future of technologies in general. Hell, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that AI might take one second and solve every challenge we as a species have, and that might happen imminently.

Happy new years everyone!
 
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