Edmonton - Red Deer - Calgary Hyperloop | ?m | ?s | Transpod

[KyleBlanchett]

Saw how this is starting to pick up again it deserves its own forum.

 

[KyleBlanchett]

Ultra-high-speed tube would transport people between Edmonton and Calgary in 30 minutes: TransPod | Globalnews.ca

A company that is designing ultra-high-speed transportation technology hopes the United Conservative government will support its proposal for a privately funded link it says would get people from Edmonton to Calgary in about 30 minutes.

globalnews.ca

 

[KyleBlanchett]

About TransPod - TransPod Hyperloop

[...]Read More...

transpod.com

 

[Daveography]

 

[KyleBlanchett]

@Daveography Come on Dave they said the construction of phase 1 will be complete in 12-18 months!


This project will take 50 years to build

 

[Urban Sky]

Remind me again how many kilometers of tracks are operational to date and how many people have been transported and how many operating revenues have been generated with this “technology”?

 

[archited]

The cat came back because he couldn't stay away...

 

[KyleBlanchett]

@Urban Sky About the same as last year. Zero. There are multiple test tracks in operation though.

 

[archited]

German team registers the top speed (again) in Elon Musk’s Hyperloop pod race

For the fourth time in a row, a German team has registered the top speed in SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s Hyperloop pod race for college-level engineers.

www.geekwire.com

I witnessed this event in my corner of the world (Hawthorne, California) -- the technology is real. https://hyperloop-one.com/ & https://www.hyperloop.global/progress

 

[westcoastjos]

German team registers the top speed (again) in Elon Musk’s Hyperloop pod race

For the fourth time in a row, a German team has registered the top speed in SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s Hyperloop pod race for college-level engineers.

www.geekwire.com

I witnessed this event in my corner of the world (Hawthorne, California) -- the technology is real. https://hyperloop-one.com/ & https://www.hyperloop.global/progress

I'm sure the tech is real - scaling it up to the real world seems to be far away still though. I'm extremely skeptical of private venture building this out, especially in Alberta. I don't see how our populations would make this profitable. There is plenty of farm space out there to gobble up in rural Alberta if they need a small plot of land for testing.

 

[archited]

@westcoastjos just imagine the Oilers and the Flames commuting to games in each other's arena (more skating time) . Actually the point that is typically missed in these kinds of developments is the infrastructure build-out that comes along with.the basic hyperloop line. A good analogy comparison can be found in looking at the new arena downtown and the surge in development that that edifice has engendered (and that particular story has just begun to be written -- development is going to increase algebraically if not logarithmically). If the hyperloop -- from Edmonton's viewpoint -- were to engage, say, the CP lands in Strathcona, a whole new concept and a second City core would come online -- a travel destination centre that would provide an alternative to YEG (lets call it HEH -- Hyperloop Edmonton Hangout -- and, if you have little faith in its coming into being, lets call it HEH HEH). Surrounding a new station would be retail and hospitality -- a viable extension for Old Strathcona -- service industry, offices and condominiums and apartments. But, if I were planning this thing (and I am not), I would make sure that there were connections to YEG, to Red Deer, to Calgary (of course), to YYC, and to Lethbridge. And I would make sure that there were networked connections -- non hyperloop -- to Sylvan Lake, to Banff, etc. The Hyperloop is intended to connect urban centres and thereby improve intercity commerce. Sure it would bite into the dozens of daily flights from Edmonton to Calgary and vise versa, but it could at the same time improve incoming and outgoing flights to more distant locations. Mark me down as a believer! ?? ?????‍✈️?‍♂️?

 

[Urban Sky]

German team registers the top speed (again) in Elon Musk’s Hyperloop pod race

For the fourth time in a row, a German team has registered the top speed in SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s Hyperloop pod race for college-level engineers.

www.geekwire.com

I witnessed this event in my corner of the world (Hawthorne, California) -- the technology is real. https://hyperloop-one.com/ & https://www.hyperloop.global/progress

So far, the “technology” consists of a bob-sleigh, which can be accelerated in a pipeline to reach high speeds for a few seconds. Let’s not forget that it took approximately 80 years from the first electrical locomotive to the first bullet train - a development which is trivial compared to the evolutions the Hyperloop “technology” has to undergo before they can do anything of what you dream up below:

@westcoastjos just imagine the Oilers and the Flames commuting to games in each other's arena (more skating time) . Actually the point that is typically missed in these kinds of developments is the infrastructure build-out that comes along with.the basic hyperloop line. A good analogy comparison can be found in looking at the new arena downtown and the surge in development that that edifice has engendered (and that particular story has just begun to be written -- development is going to increase algebraically if not logarithmically). If the hyperloop -- from Edmonton's viewpoint -- were to engage, say, the CP lands in Strathcona, a whole new concept and a second City core would come online -- a travel destination centre that would provide an alternative to YEG (lets call it HEH -- Hyperloop Edmonton Hangout -- and, if you have little faith in its coming into being, lets call it HEH HEH). Surrounding a new station would be retail and hospitality -- a viable extension for Old Strathcona -- service industry, offices and condominiums and apartments. But, if I were planning this thing (and I am not), I would make sure that there were connections to YEG, to Red Deer, to Calgary (of course), to YYC, and to Lethbridge. And I would make sure that there were netwrked connections -- non hyperloop -- to Sylvan Lake, to Banff, etc. The Hyperloop is intended to connect urban centres and thereby improve intercity commerce. Sure it would bite into the dozens of daily flights from Edmonton to Calagary and vise versa, but it could at the same time improve incoming and outgoing flights to more distant locations. Mark me down as a believer! ?? ?????‍✈️?‍♂️?

Impressive how much creativity and imagination a simple computer simulation and ridiculous bobsleigh-in-pipeline tests can set free. Why don’t you sign up for the first human-driver-in-a-vacuumized-tube test at 600 mph?

 

[OverheardatYEG]

@archited I believe the prime example is look at any train hub in Europe when there are regular commuters these spots become some of the largest retail and consumer locations all while increasing commercial real estate activity surrounding the hub. I believe it would only benefit Edmonton and could make a striking impact on the local economy and more a regional economy.

 

[archited]

Ooooh nasty @Urban Sky -- you are certainly entitled to believe what you believe, but please do not preach negativity! -- particularly on this site where we all respect each others viewpoints. As to your point about the genesis from first electric train to bullet train, technology is moving today at ever increasing speeds. 1G developed and commercialized in 1979; 2G first on the scene in 1991 (some 12 years later); 3G -- 1998 (7 years later); 4G LTE (new format) -- 2011 (13 years) and now 5G -- 2019 (8 years) with expectations of 6G by 2022 (5 years) -- the point is that technology is moving at an ever-increasing speed on all fronts -- robotics, IoT, computing power, communications and TRANSPORTATION.

 

[Urban Sky]

Ooooh nasty @Urban Sky -- you are certainly entitled to believe what you believe, but please do not preach negativity! -- particularly on this site where we all respect each others viewpoints. As to your point about the genesis from first electric train to bullet train, technology is moving today at ever increasing speeds. 1G developed and commercialized in 1979; 2G first on the scene in 1991 (some 12 years later); 3G -- 1998 (7 years later); 4G LTE (new format) -- 2011 (13 years) and now 5G -- 2019 (8 years) with expectations of 6G by 2022 (5 years) -- the point is that technology is moving at an ever-increasing speed on all fronts -- robotics, IoT, computing power, communications and TRANSPORTATION.

First of all, I have not the slightest problem with a thread dedicated to a discussion of the Hyperloop concept and its progress and evolution, but I wouldn't participate in such a discussion, as it is one for people who believe in its potential and eventual success (which I remain deeply sceptical of). My problem is that Hyperloop is discussed in this thread as if it was a potential solution for an existing transportation problem and could be implemented in a comparable timeframe as more established technologies, be they fast intercity rail, High-Speed Rail, Maglevs or suspended Monorails.

One thing which comes always in my mind when Hyperloop or Maglev "believers" talk about their preferred technology and why it is superior to other technologies is a quote (supposedly from a German philosopher) which my Ethics teacher kept repeating:
"Those people who are the most enthusiastic about a new idea are always those who already didn't understand the old ones"

Unfortunately, I find it impossible to not think about that quote when I read your likening of data transmission technologies (i.e. the transmission of bits and bytes, which travel at basically the speed of light and often wireless) to the physical transportation of living humans, let alone the notion that the evolution from steel-based railroading (or maglev monorails) to pods travelling in a vacuumized tube at close to the speed of sound could be compared to the simple switch between data transmission standards. Just hand a 5G and 4G cell phone to a 6-year-old or a 80-year-old and ask them to describe the differences between the two and then ask them the same when showing them a picture of a TGV and a Hyperloop!

The problem with radically rethinking the existing transport technologies is that you have to start from scratch again, as there are no experiences with maintaining vacuums over hundreds of miles of tubes and inserting and removing vehicles ("pods") multiple times per minute into and out of said vacuum the engineers could draw from. Therefore, the best time estimate for a new transportation technology becoming mature enough for revenue service comes from older transportation technologies and from the steam engine over the diesel locomotive and the electric locomotive to the bullet train and Maglevs, this period has always been multiple decades rather than a few years - and I can't see any reason why a technology which challenges the laws of physic (e.g. the instability of extreme differentials in air pressure) as much as the Hyperloop would be an exception.

Finally, my suggestion to go and volunteer was a serious one, as it would confront you with the fact that they are still decades away before they can offer a travel experience which resembles anything remotely close to what their sleek computer animations promise. Because so far, they haven't even started to acknowledge "all the problems of space travel [which] traveling in a gun barrel at the speed of sound" entails (let alone: started to solve any of them)...

Therefore, I strongly encourage you to deepen your curiosity in the Hyperloop concept, but I would also welcome if you wouldn't distract from the necessary discussions of real-life transportation problems and their potential solution with technologies which are already proven and readily available. Thank you and have a great evening!