Kevin C. Coates

Elon Musk’s recent Hyperloop proposal resurrects discussion in the U.S. about the advantages of true high-speed ground transportation. The country desperately needs a national consensus as to what constitutes fast and cost-effective HSGT before a single track or guideway is laid, but as of yet the conversation has failed to develop the required consensus for true high-speed ground transportation. Mr. Musk’s proposal gets the discussion going again.But as to his proposal, while Mr. Musk correctly criticizes the California high-speed rail proposal for being too slow and too expensive to build and maintain, his own Hyperloop technology is only a concept.  U.S.

Washington hosted the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) annual meeting just prior to President Obama’s inauguration. One month earlier, over 200 participants from 16 countries attended the 20th biannual International Maglev Systems Conference in San Diego. Only this year, there were no TRB maglev presentations, nor were there any Federal Railroad Administration or Federal Transit Administration representatives. So why was the most advanced transport technology conspicuously ignored? Answer: the Bush administration was anti-maglev and discouraged official review or acceptance of the technology. Related Links: Video: The Promise Of Maglev Things have changed. President Obama provided some much needed leadership and pushed