I think the point is valid in a larger sense, when applied to the US. The US can't be home to the hyperloop.
The US political and regulatory system has become so corrupt and byzantine that we just can't do big projects here any more. Not of this scale. (Seeing other comment - the Bay Bridge is nothing like this scale, and the fact that's a $7billion project works against your point not in favor of it).
It isn't knee-jerk anti-unionism to discuss the union involvement either. It's not just that they'd want to unionize construction and operation, raising costs, but the unions who would feel threatened by this (airlines, rail) and other lobbying organizations, as well as the petrochemical industry would all gear up to delay, undermine and attack this project.
If the Hyperloop is ever made a reality it'll be elsewhere, most likely China. The ideas will flow freely in the US but the implementation will be elsewhere, somewhere they have the will and means to make it happen.
(To pre-empt the straw man that I'm saying the US is too corrupt but China might do it so I must be saying China is not corrupt - of course it is. Just a different type of corruption, one benefits the politically connected through inaction, the other through securing powerful monopolies and funneling state money to private projects like this.)
All that being said, I would love to be wrong about this.
Seeing something like the Hyperloop built between Dallas and Houston (so much empty space between sides on I-45) or Houston and Austin would be amazing. The sheer number of pipefitters and folks that do orbital welding (learned in oil & gas work) would make finding people to do this a cinch.
Then again, look at how much bullshit Southwest Airlines went through with Love Field and DFW, and there is a good hint that something like this would be lobbied against by Greyhound, Southwest, and everybody else.
Ha - came here to say the same. You know where he should build it? Austin. Austin is IDEAL for him - he can build a small mockup, then build out to Dallas. The next station would then go to Houston - and he'd be able to have one "hub". Next up: New Orleans (500mi away). Then you've got all these other markets - Denver is 900mi away, Albuquerque is 700mi, Nashville is 850mi... If it's optimized at <1000mi, Austin is perfect.
I'd say its far more likely that if building a hyperloop is ever executed, the USA will be the last place to get the thing. Honestly California can't pull itself together to do anything and I can't picture another state in the union that would unanimously approve funding what most politicians would see as an experimental hippy dippy sci fi solar monorail that isn't backed by oil lobbies or any unions. Elon Musk just gave China the transit system of the future, not us
What a jackass. The whole Texas vs California regulatory environment is so tired. How the heck would this be "ideally a private project"? I could easily see politicians like Brown or Arnie getting behind something like this and it getting some real traction. We just spent $7b on the Bay Bridge so it's not like we can't get this scale of stuff done. The bulk of the land is already government owned/controlled (mainly I-5). This reads like it was written by Forbes...knee-jerk anti-California biz environment.
That sounds like a good point (I'm not from California so I can't judge), but the quality of your argument is significantly reduced by the initial ad hominem.
The US political and regulatory system has become so corrupt and byzantine that we just can't do big projects here any more. Not of this scale. (Seeing other comment - the Bay Bridge is nothing like this scale, and the fact that's a $7billion project works against your point not in favor of it).
It isn't knee-jerk anti-unionism to discuss the union involvement either. It's not just that they'd want to unionize construction and operation, raising costs, but the unions who would feel threatened by this (airlines, rail) and other lobbying organizations, as well as the petrochemical industry would all gear up to delay, undermine and attack this project.
If the Hyperloop is ever made a reality it'll be elsewhere, most likely China. The ideas will flow freely in the US but the implementation will be elsewhere, somewhere they have the will and means to make it happen.
(To pre-empt the straw man that I'm saying the US is too corrupt but China might do it so I must be saying China is not corrupt - of course it is. Just a different type of corruption, one benefits the politically connected through inaction, the other through securing powerful monopolies and funneling state money to private projects like this.)
All that being said, I would love to be wrong about this.