Last year, the state of California gave 7.7 billion dollars to a project trying to build a high speed rail-train, California High Speed Rail (quite self-explanatory). But, this money was just enough to build a small section of the train, and in general, wasn’t that promising to the tech tycoons living, working and scheming in Silicon Valley. Elon Musk, the living comparison to Iron Man (though not as super-hero like), had an idea based off of the old 80s concept, the Hyperloop supertrain. The CHSR was just too expensive and slow, estimated to be around 220 mph. The Hyperloop will probably (hopefully) be 750 mph. Beat that, Californian government.

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Elon Musk Himself

While being able to go from San Francisco to LA in half an hour, we can’t help wondering, “How?” Well, as I said before, Musk took his idea off of the old vac-train concept. The train itself is in a tube, and because of California’s earthquake tendency, on pillars. On top of the tube are solar panels to help fuel the train. If it’s that fast, it might as well be green, to.

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The Train

The train, while in action, will ride on top of a floor of pressurized air, letting it, and helping it, gain and gain speed to 800 mph without those pesky sonic booms. To passengers, it will feel like a plane ride. But, after a recent announcement from Musk, we know that it just might be better. First of all, it will be cheaper for passengers. Musk said that the tickets will be cheaper and, not counting the machinery, the pods and tubes will be 6$ billion to build.

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The Tube

Secondly, Musk says that there will be a car option in some of the bigger tubes. You just drive into the train, take off, and be there in 30 min with your car, which can be very useful in cities like LA. Also, you save money, and hassle, from taxis. Overall, the Hyperloop train is so high-tech, cheap, green and revolutionary that I hope it carries through. It has the potential to take over from regular train everywhere. Then again, as Elon said, “Over 1,000 miles, the tube cost starts to become prohibitive, and you don’t want tubes every which way. You don’t want to live in Tube Land.”