Pete Buttigieg is the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation and he doesn't believe government money should be used for "Hyperloop" He said that they would probably not try it on their dime.
About a decade ago, Musk floated the idea of a hyperloop. His idea of a pneumatic tube-type train tunnel that uses vacuum power to propel passengers to their destination was compelling enough that it helped derail California's plans to build an actual high speed train network.
There is no Hyperloop connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco or anywhere else. There is a tunnel network under the Las Vegas strip where you can ride in a car at 35 mph. The federal government doesn't consider Hyperloop to be a good investment.
Buttigieg gave an overview of the Biden administration's approach to emerging transportation technologies in a Q&A session on Monday. Buttigieg said that they were all about exciting ideas that could change the world. The technologies that could make a difference today are where we have to begin.
The most obvious flaw of the system is that it hasn't been proven to work in the real world.
That is one of the main sticking points for many critics of the technology. There is little air resistance in a low-pressure, near-vacuum tunnel where passenger coaches run at high speeds. If constant pressure isn't maintained, long distance sealed tunnels would be hard to maintain.
The all-hype, no-proof scheme has become a distraction. The US has no dedicated high speed rail lines.
The U.S. lags behind in many aspects of mass transit compared to other nations. There are more than 300 miles of passenger rail that can run at 155 mph. There are over 500 miles of fast trains in Turkey. Thousands of miles of high speed rail can be found in China and Europe. The NYC to D.C. line is the only comparable one in America.
Someone in Turkey, for example, shouldn't have access to better passenger rail if they're a European or Japanese citizen. There isn't a good reason.
Mass transit is needed to take us into a green future as the climate catastrophe unfolds. The problem of transportation carbon emissions can't be solved by the electric vehicle boom. Electric vehicles are powered by fossil fuels in most instances. There isn't enough EV's to meet current demand and an all electric future. We don't know where we're going to find the minerals and metals to increase production.
If Buttigieg and the rest of the Biden administration follow through on their plans better than Musk does, change could be on the way. Rail funding was included in Biden's infrastructure law even though high speed rail plans were cut from the inflation reduction act. Bigger train networks would be a result of that money.
We are not doing what people in Europe or Japan would consider regular speed rail. We need to make the most of the technologies that are available here. There are things emerging that could leapfrog what we are used to and take us to the next level. But make sure it's true.
Buttigieg said that they might be able to doHyperloop later.
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