California cancels plan for high-speed train between Los Angeles and San Francisco

[Dashinka 24,488]

9 hours ago, millefleur said:

In terms of going through mountains, much of that technology has been developed by China and Japan and even places like Switzerland to a degree, the entire country of Japan is one giant hotbed of seismic activity but they have amazing high speed trains. I definitely think it's the cronyism that killed the project and the general indifference Americans have towards trains, especially when flights between LA-SF are some of the cheapest around.

 

Any thoughts on the Elon Musk's Loop project in LA? I'm really skeptical myself but at least it's privately funded, I just don't think it seems like a better idea than a subway system.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-reveals-next-steps-for-the-boring-company-2018-12

 

 

The development is being funded privately, but do you think any large scale application would be solely privately funded?  As to the actual development of the Hyperloop or its practicality, in my work with vacuum, I know that it is very difficult to keep a large scale vacuum tube sealed.  I also wonder how much power it would take to maintain a vacuum on a huge tube, or what would happen if you are zipping along at 700+ mph and the vacuum is lost.

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

1 hour ago, Bill & Katya said:

The development is being funded privately, but do you think any large scale application would be solely privately funded?  As to the actual development of the Hyperloop or its practicality, in my work with vacuum, I know that it is very difficult to keep a large scale vacuum tube sealed.  I also wonder how much power it would take to maintain a vacuum on a huge tube, or what would happen if you are zipping along at 700+ mph and the vacuum is lost.

You bring up good points.   Any idea what it costs to run super electromagnets?  The electric bill plus super cooling to -200°C can't be cheap.  But I have only found costs to build online, not to run.

[Dashinka 24,488]

9 minutes ago, ALFKAD said:

You bring up good points.   Any idea what it costs to run super electromagnets?  The electric bill plus super cooling to -200°C can't be cheap.  But I have only found costs to build online, not to run.

Two words....Wind Power. 

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

6 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

Two words....Wind Power. 

Wait, am I talking to Bill O. Cortez????

[TBoneTX 45,267]

His Cortex is regular, not Occasional.

[millefleur 5,046]

5 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

The development is being funded privately, but do you think any large scale application would be solely privately funded?  As to the actual development of the Hyperloop or its practicality, in my work with vacuum, I know that it is very difficult to keep a large scale vacuum tube sealed.  I also wonder how much power it would take to maintain a vacuum on a huge tube, or what would happen if you are zipping along at 700+ mph and the vacuum is lost.

I'm extremely skeptical of the vacuum based idea for safety reasons. To answer the question of what would happen if the vacuum is lost, there are multiple videos on YouTube showing it completely imploding in on itself and crushing all contents inside....sounds fun for the theoretical passengers! Something as potentially dangerous as that in the land of lawsuits?? The company will be sued out of existence from the very first accident, even a minor one.

 

I think something as insane and experimental as a Musk's project should be privately funded because it's more of a science experiment than anything else. In terms of tried and true public transit, a combo of public and private would probably work, that's how Tokyo's subway system was built.

Edited February 13, 2019 by millefleur

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

9 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

Two words....Wind Power. 

If you go anywhere in SoCal like Coachella, Bakersfield, or Palm Springs you can't miss the wind mills. The one place I have expected to see them and haven't is on the Grapevine or the Cajon Pass 

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

1 hour ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

If you go anywhere in SoCal like Coachella, Bakersfield, or Palm Springs you can't miss the wind mills. The one place I have expected to see them and haven't is on the Grapevine or the Cajon Pass 

How many of those are non-functional?

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

1 hour ago, ALFKAD said:

How many of those are non-functional?

At any one time you might see maybe 1-2 out 10 non-functioning. So roughly 10% at least. When you are driving from San Bernadino down to Palm Springs they are literally everywhere.

While in the High Desert between Palmdale to Barstow that is where the most solar panels are. My coworker used to joke/complain about how his power bill was so high every month even though they lived in one of the most solar ridden areas of the USA. They have tons of open desert and nothing to use it for so they stick solar panels on it. What's funny is that during the daytime California is a net exporter of energy that they are looking in to trying to store the power to use it during the night time.