Pittsburgh to Cleveland in 9 minutes: Presentation on Hyperloop held in Pittsburgh

[yortsed snacilbuper]

Imagine zooming from Pittsburgh to Cleveland in less than 10 minutes, a trip that takes roughly two hours by car. The Great Lakes Hyperloop could make that possible.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission is working with the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency to talk about a fifth mode of transportation coming to the Midwest.

"It moves above the rail or inside of a tube in which the resistance is reduced so significantly that you can get hundreds of miles an hour of travel," said Southwest Pennsylvania Commission Executive Director Jim Hassinger. "Because the travel times would be reduced so significantly -- it helps knit together this multistate's regions economies."

link

[CurtEastPoint]

1. oops. I thought it said PIT to CHI which is 6 hours. PIT to CLE is a little over 2 hours

[RandiFan1290]

3. I've been following this for many years

Looking forward to see it progress

[CurtEastPoint]

4. That and maglev fascinate me.

[brooklynite]

5. As a transportation planner who's worked on some of Musk's proposals, I'll say "meh"

Set aside the technology. In many parts of the US, your property rights extend to the center of the earth. Try getting the land rights you need, even for a deep tunnel.

[brush]

6. That's sound barrier speed. How have the designers dealt with the buffeting when that is approached?

[airplaneman]

7. They create a vacuum - no air no sound barrier. n/t.

[brush]

8. Even on the version which runs above a rail outside of a tube?

[Blue Owl]

15. The Cleveland Steamer

n/t

[Generic Brad]

9. 9 minutes to Cleveland is not a selling point

It's Cleveland.

[eppur_se_muova]

11. LOL! Former Pittsburgher here, I was wondering when someone would say that. nt

I'm surprised the audience didn't rise to its feet to express similar sentiments.

[IHaveNoName]

19. OTOH....

Cleveland to Pittsburgh in 9 minutes isn't fast enough.

[First Speaker]

12. I've visited Cleveland twice in the past few years, and love the city...

...yes, some parts are a bit funky, and like all rust belt towns, it's fallen on hard times. But it is on the rebound, the topography is lovely, with rolling green hills, and many--not all, no, but many--of the neighborhoods are incredibly cool. I loved walking in Ohio City and University Square, to name just two. The lake is terrific, and its public library is sensational. I could happily live there for the rest of my life, hiding in the stacks--The Phantom of the Library. And the Terminal Tower is my favorite skyscraper, anywhere. Long live Cleveland!

[Ohiogal]

10. Would be great

for the Steelers- Browns game tomorrow...

[sakabatou]

13. A big enough dent would collapse the tube

[roamer65]

14. NYC to Chicago would be a good route.

With a couple of stops in between if possible.

[Iterate]

16. Passengers go in one end, red mist comes out the other.

Again, this is a continental-sized scam.

The energy costs alone are over-the-moon. The atmosphere is especially unkind to vacuums in a tin can. Turning radius, acceleration, deceleration, all unacceptable...

...and I'm not going to list the hundreds of faults, just the benefits, of which there are none. OK, maybe some work for graphic designers and people who pull numbers out of a vacuum.

Perhaps worst of all, it distracts from what really needs to be done - urban mass transit. Otherwise, I'm not worried that it will ever be built, not even a 50km prototype.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Decent wi-fi is making the need for these superfast transports smaller and smaller

It use to be that you'd look on travel time as wasted. But if you're not driving yourself, and you've got room for a laptop, you can work, watch TV or film, chat on the phone, read, or just relax as people used to. Most people will be spending far more time switching to other modes of transport than 9 minutes. Cut off a 10 minute wait at either end, and you could use a 250mph train instead, without technological innovation required. Or make it a 125mph train and it takes about an hour. Trains have managed that for 80 years.

[xmas74]

18. Kansas City/Columbia/St Louis

Are also in consideration for it. Commute from KC to St Louis would be around an hour with it.

[scheming daemons]

20. I live in Pittsburgh. I have no desire to get to Cleveland in 9 hours, let alone 9 minutes.

[DFW]

21. If I were age 5 again

I'd be advocating L.A. to Dallas to Washington to New York.

Of course, the money, the technology and the will won't be there even in my children's lifetimes, but we can always dream.

If you had told my grandfathers (both born in 1894) at age 10 that it would be no big deal for their grandson to get from New York to Düsseldorf in 7 hours, and there would be daily service, they would have told you to stop with the fantasy musings and get real.

For the longer distances, I see the environmental consequences as even more important than time saved. After all, 3 hours from Dallas to NYC or DC isn't bad. Sure, we might be able to make that half an hour some day, but at what expense and risk? If we can eliminate the use of fossils fuel for air travel, THAT is a consideration that would make it all worthwhile.

And Pittsburgh to Cleveland? Is someone nostalgic for Allegheny Airlines?

[EarthFirst]

22. That's like trying to sell Philadelphia to Delaware...

::crickets::