[Coprolite]

All I will say is best of luck. If 20 years from now I step onto this Hyperloop to go to Calgary or somewhere further, I will be the first to admit that I didn't have hopes of it happening.

I'll be enthusiastically pointing out that when boarding and disembarking times are figured in, it's not actually significantly faster at getting people to Calgary than technology from the 1980s would have accomplished for much less money while providing much higher throughput and an actual capability to branch tracks and run mixes of express and local services on the same track. During the first maintenance incident, I'll point out that it's a heck of a lot easier to maintain a track than a vacuum tube, and how close the latter is always going to be to catastrophic failure. I will refer to it constantly as the bomb tube. I will constantly cite it as an example of how we are a province of deeply credulous rubes.

 

[kcantor]

A lot of assumptions here. I'll wait to see what the study shows. This is why its being explored/discussed.

I’ve read every study I’ve come across going back to before the Van Horne report and looked at the assumptions each of them made and the forecasts each of them made and there’s a reason none of them went further than they did.

They're building a test track in Goringen, Netherlands. The proposal is to use it heavily for freight as well to make it more economical. I imagine they'd do the same here.

https://innoenergy.com/uploads/2023/01/cargo-hyperloop-holland_executive-summary.pdf

Under construction? That’s not even a feasibility study, it’s a 6 year old pre feasibility study with the following timeline:

It’s pretty clear they’re going to miss all of their milestones.

There is a test track in the Netherlands however. It’s all of 420 metres long with the fastest speed being reached to date of 85 kph and nothing to think it would be any slower on open air track.

 

[inclusion]

Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if the Hyperloop company is just a front for washing money.

 

[Offworld]

Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if the Hyperloop company is just a front for washing money.

The tech has already been well-debunked.

 

[wormwood]

The tech has already been well-debunked.

I agree the chances are miniscule (but non zero). The tech however hasn’t been debunked, just not proven yet in practise.

 

[Coprolite]

I agree the chances are miniscule (but non zero). The tech however hasn’t been debunked, just not proven yet in practise.

And comes with obvious disadvantages right out of the gate, like construction cost, low throughput, a lack of an actual travel time advantage over extant technologies on the scale of the Edmonton-Calgary corridor, and the whole issue of maintaining vacuum in a lengthy tube and the logistical issues of actually boarding.

 

[Platinum107]

Two Canadian steel companies:

Company aiming to build Alberta hyperloop secures steel partnership

The Canadian company looking to build a high-speed electric vehicle line between Alberta’s two largest cities announced Thursday it has entered an agreement with two steel suppliers for the project.

www.ctvnews.ca

Look, I'm not against scientific innovation or research. If TransPod wanted to finance and build a test track in some farm fields outside of the city, that's fine by me. They have the right to develop their hyperloop technology here.

With that said, the idea that this kind of system could become operational for large scale commercial passenger operations in even the next 50 years, much less in the next couple of decades, feels so utterly ridiculous and out of touch with the reality of public transit systems to me. And this is just on a technical basis:

I don't understand how there could be any semblance of a tangible business case for a hyperloop system between Edmonton and Calgary. The corridor houses a little over 3 million people right now, which isn't a small number of people but isn't a large number of people either (definitely not nearly enough to create the travel demand needed to warrant such an expensive, complex and high-speed transport system). Even taking into account another 1-2 million people by the time a system like this would be operational, I still don't see how that would be enough to warrant it. High speed rail with an operating speed between 250-300 kph would already get you between Ed and Cal within 1.5 hrs on an express train, which is significantly faster than the current 3.5-4 hr Red Arrow bus ride. How much of an impact will a "45 minute" trip (more likely 1 hr) really have on ridership projections versus a 1.5 hr trip?? And for what could be upwards of double the cost of a greenfield HSR corridor at that!?!?

All I'm saying is that conventional trains are arguably the most effective, efficient, reliable, environmentally friendly and socioeconomically sustainable transport mode we as humans have ever devised. Passenger rail systems permeate throughout the world because of how versatile and scalable trains are, and yet Alberta does not have even one linking its two cities which are essentially the perfect distance apart for higher-speed train services.

I feel so exasperated and disillusioned with these pie-in-the-sky gadgetban concepts its almost hard to describe. Just build a goddamn train line, dude.

 

[wormwood]

Lots of armchair engineers, which is great. Most of the comments are regurgitating social media criticisms. Until they're spending our cash, go for it with the research.

 

[Platinum107]

Lots of armchair engineers, which is great. Most of the comments are regurgitating social media criticisms. Until they're spending our cash, go for it with the research.

I'm definitely acting like an armchair engineer, and I think I and others have valid reasons to do so, especially considering the very trustworthy, grounded and altruistic origins of the entire concept itself!

The Hyperloop was always a scam

It's time to be honest about Musk's vacuum tube to nowhere

disconnect.blog

^To summarize that article, Elon Musk disliked the California HSR project so much that he created the concept for the hyperloop in the hopes that it would potentially hinder the project. The original idea even included drive-in pods for cars as well which makes so much sense and definitely isn't impractical and dangerous at all.

Honestly tho, I hope that companies like TransPod can spite Melon Husk in a way and actually make functioning hyperloop systems which are scalable and deployable at relatively affordable costs. Until then though, we in Canada and the U.S. need to get our collective heads out of our collective asses and build functioning intercity rail systems and exit the stone age. Let's start with comfortable, accessible, frequent and safe public transit systems in general.

 

[archited]

^ Not to be overly picky but you are conflating two separate ideas here -- the 1. Hyperloop with the 2. Boring company and cars moving on LSM-driven sleds. Both are Musk originators (Musk seems to be in a mental tail spin presently so i don't envision much progress from him on many fronts (including SpaceEx and Tesla) until he extracts himself from politics, lays off the "mind-expanding" drugs (allegedly), and reinserts himself in his now-struggling companies). Both ideas were born from existing technology so there wasn't much inventiveness there -- old ideas, new applications.

 

[Coprolite]

Look, I'm not against scientific innovation or research. If TransPod wanted to finance and build a test track in some farm fields outside of the city, that's fine by me. They have the right to develop their hyperloop technology here.

With that said, the idea that this kind of system could become operational for large scale commercial passenger operations in even the next 50 years, much less in the next couple of decades, feels so utterly ridiculous and out of touch with the reality of public transit systems to me. And this is just on a technical basis:

I don't understand how there could be any semblance of a tangible business case for a hyperloop system between Edmonton and Calgary. The corridor houses a little over 3 million people right now, which isn't a small number of people but isn't a large number of people either (definitely not nearly enough to create the travel demand needed to warrant such an expensive, complex and high-speed transport system). Even taking into account another 1-2 million people by the time a system like this would be operational, I still don't see how that would be enough to warrant it. High speed rail with an operating speed between 250-300 kph would already get you between Ed and Cal within 1.5 hrs on an express train, which is significantly faster than the current 3.5-4 hr Red Arrow bus ride. How much of an impact will a "45 minute" trip (more likely 1 hr) really have on ridership projections versus a 1.5 hr trip?? And for what could be upwards of double the cost of a greenfield HSR corridor at that!?!?

All I'm saying is that conventional trains are arguably the most effective, efficient, reliable, environmentally friendly and socioeconomically sustainable transport mode we as humans have ever devised. Passenger rail systems permeate throughout the world because of how versatile and scalable trains are, and yet Alberta does not have even one linking its two cities which are essentially the perfect distance apart for higher-speed train services.

I feel so exasperated and disillusioned with these pie-in-the-sky gadgetban concepts its almost hard to describe. Just build a goddamn train line, dude.

Figuring in time to go through security and deal with the whole issue of getting the pod (and the people in it) in and out of vacuum, we're easily looking to adding a half an hour onto that 'more likely 1 hour', which brings us back to HSR territory, but at maglev in a vacuum tube prices and with bus level capacities, etc.

In their video, they have it operating in a low-speed area on wheels capped at a whopping 90km/h within the complexities of the urban environment, and it has to pass through an airlock which is pumped out to vacuum before it enters the vacuum stage. Once in the vacuum stage, they have it accelerating to HSR speeds until it can transition to its maglev propulsion.

 

[an_edmontonian]

Can we put a ban on any sort of talk of hyperloop "plans" that are little more than a grift? Anyone with even rudimentary knowledge of transportation systems/engineering can see how unfeasible this crap is. We may as well talk about how we should build a commuter rocket ship system between Edmonton and Calgary.

 

[Avenuer]

Hyperloop is never happening...NEXT

 

[kcantor]

^
^^

Now now... hyperloop's fluxjet technology is probably as physically and economically feasible as flux capacitor technology.

Hmmm... maybe we could get the province to purchase the old Delorean plant in Dunmurry and take flux capacitor technology to the next level? As a fall back, we could at least sell new Deloreans (converted, of course, to electric/battery operation).