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L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal

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Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal

#5
post #2

Does anyone know why they are building it in a seemingly less populated/ prosperous province?

Since the capacity of a Hyperloop system is close to zero (less than 1000 passengers per hour, much less than a lane of highway and two orders of magnitude less than an ordinary railroad), it doesn't really matter where you put it.

Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal

#6
post #2

Does anyone know why they are building it in a seemingly less populated/ prosperous province?

Looks like the eventual plan is to link the airport to a tourist spot and the city is just the first stop on the way through. Might also be cheaper/easier to do in a less populated area.

Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal

#7
Very cool to see this technology progress. Will be interesting to track. China certainly has shown that it both can invest in and build public infrastructure at an amazing scale and pace.

It's a little concerning that this isn't really a sale - it's a joint venture. From the article:

"HyperloopTT will form a joint venture with the Tongren authorities, according to the Guizhou provincial government, though the company’s announcement didn’t say whether it would be expected to transfer technology."

Has to be taken with a bit of caution as we've seen how this worked out in high speed rail:

"China's early high-speed trains were imported or built under technology transfer agreements with foreign train-makers including Alstom, Siemens, Bombardier and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Since the initial technological support, Chinese engineers have re-designed internal train components and built indigenous trains manufactured by the state-owned CRRC Corporation." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_China]

You'll find that China now is battling for dominance in the global high speed rail market and the formerly leading European providers (Seimens, Altrom) and in trouble and may have to merge just to survive.

"European rivals unite as CRRC threatens to corner train market " [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-27/alstom-si...]

[https://www.credit-suisse.com/corporate/en/articles/news-and...]

Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal

#8
post #5
post #2

Does anyone know why they are building it in a seemingly less populated/ prosperous province?

Since the capacity of a Hyperloop system is close to zero (less than 1000 passengers per hour, much less than a lane of highway and two orders of magnitude less than an ordinary railroad), it doesn't really matter where you put it.

Should we be comparing it to trains or planes though?

Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal

#10
post #8
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since the capacity of a Hyperloop system is close to zero (less than 1000 passengers per hour, much less than a lane of highway and two orders of magnitude less than an ordinary railroad), it doesn't really matter where you put it.

Should we be comparing it to trains or planes though?

Did you mean should we compare it to airports? LAX will land 54 aircraft in the 60 minutes starting now, and I assure you that amounts to rather more than 1000 pax/hour.
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