Home » VT News » Honey, Let's Take The Hyperloop To Vegas
Honey, Let's Take The Hyperloop To Vegas
Roughly an hour ago, visionary entrepreneur Elon Musk released a specification to build the Hyperloop, a fifth mode of transportation which he describes as a cross between the "Concorde, a rail gun and an air hockey table."

The incredibly detailed, open source specification outlines a Hyperloop route between Los Angeles and San Francisco (black line), with future phase enhancements to include loops to San Diego, San Bernardino, Fresno and Las Vegas (dotted blue lines).

Capsules leave every 8 minutes from base stations and carry 28 passengers + cargo each and travel at speeds up to 760mph via solar charged, battery powered induction motors hovering inside pressurized tubes like an air hockey table. Total time for a trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco would be about 30 minutes. The loop from Los Angeles to Las Vegas would probably be 2/3 of that. Musk projects that the Los Angeles to Las Vegas Hyperloop would transport about 1.8 million people a year and would travel in the median along existing highways with some deviations to reroute bends for high speed travel.
Costs for the San Francisco to Los Angeles is projected to be ~$6b, which would be paid for over 20 years with $20 tickets. The current proposals for high speed maglev trains in California are $68.4 billion dollars, tickets priced at $115 (one way) and a travel time of 2 hours and 28 minutes.
Imagine hopping on the Hyperloop to go to Vegas for dinner at Robuchon, then coming home. Or you can blast out to bet on the football games on Sunday afternoon and be home for dinner with the kids. Or extending your bender until the very last minutes before you have to be at that Monday morning meeting.
With every major upgrade in transportation, the world changes exponentially. From feet, to horses, to cars, to trains to planes... each increase in speed and efficiency has made the world smaller, closer, cheaper and more convenient. Vegas went from being an out of the way trek to a long drive to a short train trip to a quick flight... now, should Hyperloop become a reality, your trip to Vegas may very well become as convenient and effortless as a drive around the block.
Wanna go to Vegas in 20 minutes?

Experiments in Modern Art
The Downtown Grand
Advertisement:
The Latest:
Introducing the Trippies Class of 2017What I Did On My Summer Vacation - Part 2
Sayonara Wynn Nightlife Social Media History
Sayonara Bellagio Table Game Canopies
Trippies 2017 Webcast Live This Saturday!
Some Thoughts About Alon
Crown Pulls Out Of Alon
The Lucky Dragon Photo Safari
The Trippies 2017 Final Nominees Are...
The Trippies 2017 Nomination Phase Is Now Open
The Crown Of Macau... And Eventually Vegas
» Complete Archive

Recent Comments:
» Sayonara Bellagio Table Game Canopies...
» Introducing the Trippies Class of...
» Introducing the Trippies Class of...
» Sayonara Bellagio Table Game Canopies...
Comments & Discussion:
If somebody were to ever get this done, it would be Elon Musk. The things he's doing with Tesla is changing the auto industry and he could very well do the same with the rail industry.
Hell yeah, sounds good! I also like the sound of the vehicle pods so you can take your car along. I wonder is Tesla owners will get to ride for free?
I hope they thrash out the idea and build a prototype soon. If the US doesn't want it, I bet Japan and China will try it. (Open source!)
Putting one of these things across the San Andreas fault.
That is called smart.
@pkluvsvegas - obviously. there is a whole section in the spec about earthquake safety.
Did he get this idea from Futurama?
Thanks for the post, now I'll go to bed with this ringing in my head :
Meet George Jetson,
His Boy Elroy,
Daughter Judy,
Jane his wife.....
would the ride come with a free vomit bag? i would use the thing to go to cali from vegas if i ran out of stuff to do
The tax code re-alignment for this would be insane, but it would be a hell of a thing to see. Example: back when Texans and Oklahomans started commuting over state lines for work. Both states wondered how to tax a person whose employer was in Oklahoma, while the employee resided in Texas.
Can you imagine someone in San Bernadino commuting to Las Vegas for work? Lord knows some hosts and waiters make enough money to cover the daily ticket. Tax wars between states that border state tax-less states... it would be fun.
I could be persuaded to vomit if it meant I got to Vegas in twenty minutes, or SF in thirty.
Do there really need to be more people from Los Angeles in Las Vegas?
Now that I got that out of the way, I love the Hyperloop idea, though I realize that, in the decades this will take to be built, we might have even better modes of transport.
After all, horseless carriages and cars have only been around for about 125 years and they didn't get revolutionary until the 1950s.
^ love the first part of the comment above me Anawas
Not all of us Los Angelenos are douche nozzles!
^^ (I *could* have been talking about the sheer volume of Angelenos, and not commenting on their character)
This would be perfect for one of those nights that you argue with the better half, then decide to make a revenge trip to Vegas, then return to grovel in the bedroom all within a 3 hour period.
anawas, you just jealous.
Comments Are Closed