If Elon Musk's Hyperloop is to come to fruition, it's going to need passenger terminals. But where Musk's design proposes terminals with turntables to rotate transport capsules, industrial designer Serge Roux has come up with an alternative, and one which lives up to the Hyperloop brand. Roux's idea is much like a gondola cable car system, involving an endless loop (you see) to and from which passengers embark and disembark at either end. Roux maintains that this idea saves time, space, and has fewer parts to go wrong.
Roux claims that his proposal will support the same passenger throughput while allowing individual passengers 20 percent more time to get on or off Hyperloop capsules. Perhaps more significantly, Roux claims that his idea requires half the space, and perhaps less, of Musk's. Overall, the size of the terminal would be a slightly smaller than the Grand Central terminal building, disregarding its platforms.
Though the transit time from Los Angeles to San Francisco is slated at 30 minutes, Roux claims that the total time for a journey will be 40, on average, due to the time required to compress and decompress airlocks as capsules enter and exit the Hyperloop's main tubes, as well as taxiing time between the decompression chambers and platforms. However, Roux argues that this overall time is similar to or less than the total required in a so-called multiplexed station with a rotating turntable as proposed by Musk.
Though speculative, Roux has clearly thought looked in detail at Musk's Hyperloop proposal, and considered the detailed implications of his own design. For instance, he realises that the curvature of his building will create a gap between the capsules and arrival platforms of up to 1.3 m (4.3 ft), and so a retractable gangways will be required.
More details of the proposal can be seen on Roux's website.
Source: Serge Roux, via Wired
the tunnels
Here are the relevant problems:
>smoothness and accuracy of the walls over hundreds of miles, with the inherent high cost. Tunnel must be an "active system", constantly readjusting its position. >weight of the tunnels dictates the number of "pylons" and the cost of the pylons. The number of pylons (20,000 est??) must be cut down. I suggest a composite, not welded, tunnel, of nested layers. >noise generation, and reflected noise in a tunnel. At 700 mph, the amount of noise from the active machinery within each capsule, reflected on surfaces, may be very intense. >"hunting" > currently, trains on two rails 'hunt' back and forth horizontally, due to track irregularities. This is dampened by weight of the train. With a non-contact vehicle (air bearings) a similar "hunting may occur with three axes of motion. Right now, Airbus passenger craft often "hunt" while gaining altitude, and they do not have the effects of a tunnel.
This Hyperloop idea is going to require a long test track to unlock all the "known unknowns" and the "unknown unknowns". The terminal itself is the least of the problems.
Bridge or tunnel to Hotel/ shopping area Parking for cars Bus depot Heliport? Med center Customs center IE San Diego Hyperloop to/from Mexico?, Security center offices Hyperloop capsule service center & yard Tunnel test equip & sensor arrays Control Center. Solar arrays LENR fuel cells for aux power Tourism center Food court Rental car & taxi center.
Big plus: local jobs at each station center built IF funded.
When it opened the toll *each way* was equivalent to $70 USD. Almost nobody used it. In a magazine article on it, the author went through it with the architect who designed it.
They met ONE vehicle going the other way. The architect pointed and said "Look! Look! There's one!" The toll had just been lowered to $50 each way for the type of vehicle they used.
Today the toll runs from 2400 to 8250 Yen or about $24 to $83, depending on the size and type of vehicle.
The problem people have in Tokyo is the majority live on the north side of the bay and work on the south side. The commute usually takes around 90 minutes. The Aqua-Line shortens it to 15 minutes, but most of the millions of commuters can't afford it. (Tokyo's population is over 13 million.)
For Hyperloop to succeed it will have to be a cheap ride, preferably without any government subsidy.