A new mass transit system – the Hyperloop, envisioned by entrepreneur Elon Musk – could transport passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in just 30 minutes, at a cost of $22.00.

Musk, who is chairman, product architect & CEO of Tesla Motors, writes in his blog that massive investments in new transportation systems should deliver massive benefits.

He was referring to the recent announcement that a planned new high speed rail in California will be both expensive to operate and slower than either driving or flying the same distance.

“If we are to make a massive investment in a new transportation system, then the return should by rights be equally massive,” he writes.

Any system, Musk says, should be safer, faster, lower cost, more convenient, immune to weather, sustainably self-powering, resistant to earthquakes and not disruptive to those along the route.

“Is there truly a new mode of transport – a fifth mode after planes, trains, cars and boats – that meets those criteria and is practical to implement?” he asks.

“Many ideas for a system with most of those properties have been proposed and should be acknowledged, reaching as far back as Robert Goddard’s to proposals in recent decades by the Rand Corporation and ET3.

“Unfortunately, none of these have panned out. As things stand today, there is not even a short distance demonstration system operating in test pilot mode anywhere in the world, let alone something that is robust enough for public transit. They all possess, it would seem, one or more fatal flaws that prevent them from coming to fruition.”

In Musk’s opinion, however, the Hyperloop (or something similar) is the right solution for the specific case of high traffic city pairs that are less than about 1 500km or 900 miles apart.

The envisioned Hyperloop would start off with a tube built over or under the ground with pods travelling within it.

In order to overcome physical problems, Musk believes that an electric compressor fan on the nose of the pod would actively transfer high pressure air from the front to the rear of the vessel – similar to having a pump in the head of the syringe actively relieving pressure.

This would also create a low-friction suspension system so the pos would produce its own air cushion, making the tube as low cost and simple as possible.

Powering the fan would be an external linear electric motor, which could be used to accelerate the pod to high subsonic velocity and provide a periodic reboost roughly every 70 miles.

“The pods and linear motors are relatively minor expenses compared to the tube itself – several hundred million dollars at most, compared with several billion
dollars for the tube,” Musk writes. These amounts, however, are much less than the investments required for the proposed high-speed rail system.