If anyone is interested, I have written a critique of Elon Musk's proposal for his Hyperloop, from the viewpoint of a former railway and power station engineer. I would have hoped that the Hyperloop idea would have died a death by now, but unfortunately it is still being pursued by some entities. Feel free to distribute my critique to anyone else who might have an interest.
Musk hates railways, and his 2013 "Hyperloop Alpha" white paper was originally an attempt to stop the building of the California High Speed Rail. Among other things, it claims that railways are old-fashioned and dangerous. Some objectors to HS2 have also used the "Hyperloop will come soon!" argument. Of course, a Hyperloop does not actually need to be built for that argument to have effect, and I am not sure that Musk even took Hyperloop seriously himself.
My critique :
http://www.portico.unospace.net
Musk's "White paper" :
https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/blog_images/hyperloop-alpha.pdf
While writing I came across a critique of the Hyperloop by the Transport Research Laboratory, and although oriented more towards economics than mine, it came to broadly similar conclusions :
https://trl.co.uk/uploads/trl/documents/ACA003-Hyperloop.pdf
Feel free to share and distribute my critique. Here is one of the illustrations from it :
Musk hates railways, and his 2013 "Hyperloop Alpha" white paper was originally an attempt to stop the building of the California High Speed Rail. Among other things, it claims that railways are old-fashioned and dangerous. Some objectors to HS2 have also used the "Hyperloop will come soon!" argument. Of course, a Hyperloop does not actually need to be built for that argument to have effect, and I am not sure that Musk even took Hyperloop seriously himself.
My critique :
http://www.portico.unospace.net
Musk's "White paper" :
https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/blog_images/hyperloop-alpha.pdf
While writing I came across a critique of the Hyperloop by the Transport Research Laboratory, and although oriented more towards economics than mine, it came to broadly similar conclusions :
https://trl.co.uk/uploads/trl/documents/ACA003-Hyperloop.pdf
Feel free to share and distribute my critique. Here is one of the illustrations from it :