A third “hybrid” route is designed to make the greatest use of existing straight rail and highway alignments to reduce the need for easements. The Youngstown to Chicago trip using the hybrid route would be 50 minutes.
“The biggest challenge in doing a new transportation facility of any kind is acquiring the right of way,” said Rick Harnish, executive director of the
High Speed Rail Alliance, a high-speed train advocacy group in Chicago.
“You’ve got to have some real gumption to get that right-of-way,” he told TechNewsWorld.
“When we built the interstate highway system, we decided as a nation it was worth destroying some neighborhoods and carrying guys out of their houses with shotguns in their hands because it was good for the public,” Harnish continued. “Just changing the technology doesn’t change that.”
New Tech Kinks
One major challenge Hyperloop proponents will face is proving the technology does what they say it will do.
“Having a good demonstration of the technology’s workability is an important priority,” he told TechNewsWorld.
“This project could serve as a test case for investors, since it covers flat terrain and has an enthusiastic partner in Cleveland to see it through to completion,” Schwieterman said.
Getting regulatory approval to enable the system to handle passengers also could face roadblocks.
“That could happen quickly, or it could drag out,” Schwieterman said. “It’s simply impossible to predict.”
Safer Than Trains
In a number of ways, Hyperloop systems are safer than existing transportation systems, the researchers pointed out in their feasibility study.
For example, the system will be highly automated, which will remove the possibility of human error.
The system also will be fully enclosed, which will eliminate highway crossings, weather, and trespassers wandering in front of trains — all major causes of deaths and injuries on rail lines.
However, the researchers acknowledged there are some safety issues that will need to be addressed.
For instance, the system must comply with fire codes that allow for the evacuation of passengers and safe access to the system by firefighters, police and other first responders.
There’s also the unsettling possibility of capsules crashing into each other at hundreds of miles per hour. Hyperloop proponents are going to have to explain and demonstrate how such events can be prevented — or at least mitigated if they occur.
Point-to-Point Solution
Although the study envisions the Hyperloop stopping at cities along its route and having a terminal in Chicago, Carlo Ratti, director of the Senseable City Lab at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, sees the system as, at best, a point-to-point transportation solution.
“It’s going to be much more difficult for Hyperloop to get into the center of cities because you need to build a new exchange, while if you use a high-speed train, you can use existing stations,” he told TechNewsWorld.
“Those exchanges are usually quite huge, and the cost to build one in the center of Chicago could be prohibitive,” Ratti added.
Hyperloop is similar to air travel, he said. You leave the city, go to a Hyperloop exchange, get in a capsule, travel to another Hyperloop terminus, then proceed by another transportation mode — car, bus, subway — to your destination city.
I’s difficult to scale the technology because to scale a network you need switches, Ratti said, and “it’s super difficult to have switches with Hyperloop.”
Embarrassing Train Trip
“The trip between Chicago and Cleveland is painful, whether you’re flying or driving. The train trip is an embarrassment,” observed High Speed Rail Alliance’s Harnish.
“Travel is incredibly important to a modern economy. Modern economies have cites tied together like this in two hours or less, with very frequent service,” he continued. “If we want to maintain competitiveness worldwide, its urgent that we figure this out.”