Musk's 700mph Hyperloop Would Be A Game-Changer For Travelers
Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter
DETROIT (CBSMiami) -- If tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has his way, it will take only 29 minutes to commute between New York and Washington one day, traveling on ultra fast trains on a hyperloop track.
Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, tweeted this week he'd just received "verbal government approval" to build a hyperloop tunnel connecting Manhattan, Philadelphia, Baltimore and D.C.
"Elon musk is the modern day, infrastructure PT Barnum and it's a testament that we are even talking about it today about this idea that is really decades away from reality," said Adie Tomer, an expert on metropolitan infrastructure usage patterns.
Several companies are now working to make hyperloop trains a reality. One completed a successful test recently on a special tracks built in the Nevada desert.
In 2013, Musk dreamed up the idea of a hyperloop where passengers travel in pods that levitate and glide in vacuum-sealed tubes with almost no aerodynamic drag.
The proposed hyperloop between New York and D.C. would be the world's longest tunnel with trains traveling at 700 miles per hour.
Airliners fly closer to 500 mph and America's fastest passenger train tops out at 150 mph.
If it gets built, most would agree that it'd be a game-changer for travelers.
"All of a sudden, folks with friends and family in Washington can actually work in New York and Philadelphia on a daily basis," said Tomer. "Hyperloop is capturing our imagination because the thought of moving at that fast a speed is nothing less than exciting."