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Heathrow Hyperloop hype
"Graeme Wall" wrote in message news On 15/01/2018 14:33, tim... wrote: "Graeme Wall" wrote in message news On 15/01/2018 11:04, Someone Somewhere wrote: On 15/01/2018 09:19, Recliner wrote: Here's the latest hyperloop hype from CES, now proposed as a means of providing very fast links between Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, instead of a new runway: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/01/14/build-heathrow-gatwick-hyperloop-instead-third-runway-says-branson/ Extracts: His aspirations to send tourists into space have been notorious for setbacks, missed deadlines and broken promises. However, Sir Richard Branson’s latest venture believes it has the answer to Britain’s runway expansion dilemma, proposing a system of high-speed “hyperloops” to ferry passengers between London’s airports. Virgin Hyperloop One, a California start-up chaired by the billionaire, has been studying the possibility of a series of high-speed tubes between Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted which it says would allow passengers to travel between the airports in as little as five minutes. It says the hyperloop, a proposed transport system that involves futuristic pods travelling through low pressure tubes at speeds of up to 670 mph, would effectively turn London’s three major airports into one “hub”. Virgin Hyperloop One’s chief executive Rob Lloyd said the plan could remove the need for a third runway at Heathrow. “[We’re] thinking about how technology could make it a much different proposition than the third runway. “You’d think of this as moving between terminals instead of moving between airports,” he said. Lloyd said the company’s technical advisory board, made up of researchers and infrastructure experts, had assessed the possibility of hyperloops connecting the airports. They estimated it would take five minutes between Heathrow and Gatwick, and seven to Stansted. … However, the idea has been mocked as the epitome of Silicon Valley blue-sky thinking, with cost estimates already soaring above Musk’s predictions and engineers warning of the potential safety risks. The only successful tests of the technology to date have been unmanned trials on Virgin Hyperloop One’s 500-metre track in the Nevada desert, which have reached a maximum speed of 240 mph. It has drawn inevitable comparisons to Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard’s space tourism venture, which originally planned to start flights in 2011 but has been repeatedly hit by delays. Virgin Hyperloop One wants to have a fully-working hyperloop transporting cargo by 2021, with passengers set to follow soon after, although the company has not yet signed a deal to build a track and would have several regulatory barriers to overcome. In December, a paper published by the Department for Transport said a hyperloop in the UK would be “at least two decades away”. The DfT’s science advisory council said potential problems with emergency braking, power failures and cyber attacks, as well as the need for largely straight routes, presented a number of “technical challenges”. … continues Whilst the idea of linking all the London airports is sensible and reasonable, how does it do away with the need for a third runway? Last time I checked slots were at a premium at all London airports and it's not like they're being used for inter-London flights is it? Now, the third runway could be a second runway at Gatwick or whatever, but you still need more overall capacity surely? Arguably a second runway at Gatwick is more practical and a lot cheaper than a third at Heathrow. But the former directly affects more tory voters than the latter. in seats that they have zero chance of losing, no matter how much they **** them off The day of the guaranteed safe seat is probably over. In the predominately rural SE [1]? Nah The only seat that Labour have a chance of winning is Crawley, which paradoxically is too close to the airport to suffer from overflying aircraft. Historically the LibDems were the potential alternative, but currently they are a spent force Canterbury was an aberration caused by a student campaign. Not repeatable elsewhere. tim [1] so that's everywhere except Southampton, Portsmouth, Reading, Brighton, Medway and Thanet. |
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