Re: Interesting article on sci-fi mass transit

KHR wrote:

>I seriously doubt that building a continent-wide network of vacuum
>tunnels is cheaper than building a set of airports.
>
>Plus, air traffic patterns are much more flexible than those tied to a
>fixed network.

Plus, the authors appear to equate "terrorists" with "hijackers who want
to 
survive the deed" and don't seem to consider people who just want to
create 
a massacre. These vacuum tubes and the capsules travelling in them are 
quite sensitive to anything capable of rupturing the tubes...  suddenly 
running into normal-atmosphere-pressure gas when you're travelling at
4000 
mph is not a good idea at all, and running into minor debris is even
worse. 
And no matter what the authors claim, I find it very difficult to
believe 
that a continent-spanning net of tubes on the ground is easier to guard 
from wrong-doers than, say, a large number of airports...

Plus, I seriously doubt that an extremely extensive system of 
electromagnetic linear accelerators, airlocks, vacuum pumps etc. is that

much less vulnerable to mechanical failure (or, for that matter, that
much 
cheaper to maintain) than our current road and railway nets :-/

Later,

Oerjan
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
-Hen3ry