Talk:Vactrain
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Cost/gain assumptions
Let's just assume.. (150e9(1+.04)^20)/(2*10*X*1000*365)=20
The above equation assumes the project would cost $150BN, a government loan with 4% interest, 20 years to pay back, trains leave 10 times a day 365 days a year, huge trains carry 1000 passengers and that trains would be running both NY to London and London to NY as there are two tracks.
The wholesale price of a ticket would then be $2251 each way. That is actually quite feasible for crossing the the Atlantic in less than an hour. What does a first class ticket run these days?
I've seen estimates between 80-150bn dollars. Just a little fun math. Enter the most believable numbers and see what you get!
It's pretty likely however that departures would be a lot more frequent. Why wait? With the right automation you could have departures every minute if you really wanted to. The distance between trains would still be roughly 6000km/h*1min=100km! Double the departures, half the ticket price.
I realize this is a very rough model which doesn't take upkeep into account. Compared to flying though, upkeep of a vactrain would be close to nill. Which is why airlines and existing magtain makers might lobby to the last breath to prevent this from happening.
The above formula with departures every 10 min results in a wholesale ticket cost of $157. Worth it?
In fact, if safety is a concern, you could start with cargo first. This would test automation technologies before human traffic is introduced. No emissions, no friction means overhead per pound would be negligible.
- So how do we make this happen? The numbers look good. Can it be done with private sector money?
- What would it cost to extend this line to LA with stops in Chicago and a few other key cities? Maybe a few splinter lines. Do this instead of California High Speed Rail and Obama's rail initiatives....
Mach Numbers in Vacuo?
Mach number is the ratio of velocity (either fluid flow, or of a body) to the speed of sound in the medium. This is meaningless if there is no medium through which sound waves can travel, and it is incorrect to express the speed of a vehicle travelling in a vacuum as a Mach number. Gordon Vigurs 16:59, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
The speed of sound in a gas is dependent on the temperature, density and type of gas. Although the pipes will be close to a vacuum they will not be perfect (typically 0.1 to 0.00001 atmospheres). Also they will be predominantly small molecules such as helium (Due to gasses permeating through the casing). There will be a measurable speed of sound but it will be very different to speed in air at standard temperature and pressure. I guess use of Mach number in this case was for simple comparison to standard aircraft travel and not as a direct indication of actual speed compared to any sound waves in the medium. Jodysdad 21:52, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
- You are correct, but even more pedantic than I. Gordon Vigurs 18:34, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
Conspiracy theories?
"(Some researchers, however, such as Richard Sauder, John Rhodes, Bill Hamilton and TAL, have contended that a nation wide tube-shuttle network has been built by the U.S. military to assure Continuity Of Government [COG] operations during or after a major war on U.S. soil)." That's a pretty big claim to just drop in without any links to sources. 67.160.28.212 16:23, 27 October 2006 (UTC)
- the sources are right there in the part you quoted. big difference between Wikipedia asserting a conspiracy (?) theory and Wikipedia asserting that four researchers asserting the same theory. 207.29.128.130 14:34, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
- Yeah right. Those guys have quite a high crackpot index if you do a little research about those names.217.227.161.172 06:26, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
- It's irrelevant whether you think they are crackpots or not. What is relevant is whether the statement is properly cited, which it isn't unless we can get some references to the source (such as an interview in which they said this, or a book or article in which they published these ideas). I think the statement is of dubious worth because of the lack of that. --81.1.93.31 (talk) 22:04, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
Genesis II
The movie "Genesis II" and its sequel, "Planet Earth", produced by Gene Roddenberry, featured the "sub-shuttle". Although station sections of tunnels appeared to be pressurized, it could be that sections were pressurized around stations to allow an open platform. A pair of doors could operate on each side of a station, closing behind a train and opening in front and letting in air.
In the late 1970s/early 1980s, so the 1973 movie postulates, the first one has been completed across the United States, with a station at Carlsbad Caverns. When Dylan Hunt awakens in 2133, he discovers that before civilization broke down, a worldwide network had been completed. Unmade further sequels, for which scripts were written, includes one adventurous crossing of the Atlantic with parts of the tunnel partly submerged. My above comment about pressurizing sections runs into trouble when Dylan Hunt drives the sub-shuttle by himself from Terrania back to Pax (at Carlsbad) and has trouble stopping because he didn't start deceleration soon enough. GBC 05:05, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
Proposed merge of Vactrain and Very High Speed Transit
The two articles seem to be about the same subject. Vactrain seems to be the more general article so I propose what differing material from Very High Speed Transit contains should be integrated into the article here. —Ashanda (talk) 03:20, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
- Seems unanimous, as I say yes and nobody says no. Jim.henderson (talk) 23:36, 15 May 2008 (UTC)