While I was traveling in Beijing I remember hearing stories that the Chinese hired Japanese contractors to build the rail. Had them build one track of the rail and sent them home. Then they copied their design and built the rest of the railway.
L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
61–70 of 79 posts
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#62Wait, the US finally comes up with some new cool mass-transit technology and we're not even building it here? Shame.
"Cool" and "new" usually ends up meaning "expensive" and "proprietary" later on, especially if it's not standards conforming and tries to reinvent the wheel. See: BART
Interesting, what was cool and new about BART originally?
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 2013 Hyperloop paper claims a capacity of 840 pax/hour under some pretty optimistic assumptions. I'm willing to grant them all these assumptions because this number is tiny and pathetic. A highway has a nominal capacity of 1800 vehicles per hour at a 2-second following distance, which works out to a capacity of at least 1800 people/hour and at most, in a dedicated bus lane, something more like 20000 per hour. Rai…
Thanks for the pointer: Here is another one, maybe more recent: https://ggwash.org/view/32078/musks-hyperloop-math-doesnt-ad... Some good points, but I also think that the train system is overhyped here (comparing a single hyperloop v1.0 with a single terminal with a whole train station isn't as useful as it could be.) [Aside: Also, knowing the knots Palo Alto and other cites tie themselves in to deal with the high s…
The problem with CAHSR is that they decided to go whole hog on brand new high speed rail pretty early, and that they specified the top speed and expected travel times as a matter of law.
Realistically speaking, it's a lot more cost-effective to bring the slowest sections up to good enough speeds for medium-high speed rail. Each 10MPH increase in max speeds lead to diminishing returns.
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is just a regular type tunnel built by the Boring Company and using electric vehicles in it. Not an evacuated tunnel with very fast vehicles. Spending extra for Hyperloop speeds really only make sense for longer distances. Not sure why this Chinese project is so short unless it is just a bigger type demo for the company and China hopes to acquire the technology like it has for so many other advanced systems inve…
That Chicago system is novel in several ways, but if you don't think it's as cool as other projects, that's fine.
The tunnel is cool and great. I hope we can get these tunnels all over the place. I was just saying "Were building it here" is factually wrong about the Chicago tunnel being a Hyperloop tunnel.
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#65Wait, the US finally comes up with some new cool mass-transit technology and we're not even building it here? Shame.
The US doesn’t really do mass transit. We widen roads.
China has 16,000 miles of high-speed rail. We have essentially zero. It makes more sense to build this in China.
They already have high-speed and low-speed maglev trains.
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 2013 Hyperloop paper claims a capacity of 840 pax/hour under some pretty optimistic assumptions. I'm willing to grant them all these assumptions because this number is tiny and pathetic. A highway has a nominal capacity of 1800 vehicles per hour at a 2-second following distance, which works out to a capacity of at least 1800 people/hour and at most, in a dedicated bus lane, something more like 20000 per hour. Rai…
Using highway numbers is the wrong comparison. Hyperloop does not compete with highways. To get a better comparison, how many people fly from SF to LA every hour? That's the use case. 1 flight per hour sounds about right as a ball park estimate. A hyper loop beats that in capacity, and would likely be FASTER (due to not having to go through airport security).
A cursory look at Google Flights shows a lot more than hourly flights from SFO-LAX. That's also not including flights to other area airports like Oakland, San Jose, Ontario, John Wayne, Burbank, etc.
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
We can't build any public infrastructure in the US anymore. Too complicated between environmental regs, NIMBYism, and corruption.
> We can't build any public infrastructure in the US anymore. I know it feels that way, but it's not strictly true. Here in Seattle in the last decade we've built a new floating bridge, multiple miles of underground light rail track, and nearly two miles of deep bore road tunnel. I think there is a real problem that our new infrastructure is way too expensive and takes way too long to build, but we've demonstrated th…
Seattle's light rail is mediocre. I wish they had gone full in with a heavy rail and subway system instead.
They could've used that to link up Seattle, Tacoma, Redmond, Kent, Bainbridge Island, Vashon Island, and the entire Seattle area.
And to keep costs of building the infrastructure down, then they should consider outsourcing it, and hiring Chinese labor. (Apparently, the Chinese are very good at building railroads.) That way, you keep development costs down, and afterwards, the local citizens can enjoy first-world infrastructure, at low rates.
But, when infrastructure projects become billion dollar estimates, then that just kills any opportunity of it ever being developed. Simply, because it now becomes a major high-paying jobs program.
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#68Wait, the US finally comes up with some new cool mass-transit technology and we're not even building it here? Shame.
The US doesn’t really do mass transit. We widen roads. China has 16,000 miles of high-speed rail. We have essentially zero. It makes more sense to build this in China. They already have high-speed and low-speed maglev trains.
It doesn't make sense to build it at all.
Not unless you nix the tube and just build a reliable high speed rail system.
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#69lol China will steal this company's tech in 3...2...1...
Re: L.A. Company Wins China Hyperloop Deal
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
That Chicago system is novel in several ways, but if you don't think it's as cool as other projects, that's fine.
The tunnel is cool and great. I hope we can get these tunnels all over the place. I was just saying "Were building it here" is factually wrong about the Chicago tunnel being a Hyperloop tunnel.
"It" is "new cool mass-transit technology". That sounds to me like something that's a matter of opinion, not fact.
Edit: Ah, your stealth edit indicates you thought I was talking about Hyperloop! I wasn't. I edited the top to indicate that.