Maybe Hyperloop isn’t so loopy

So Los Angeles billionaire Elon Musk had an idea. Justifiably frustrated that the proposed $68 billion California bullet train will be way too expensive and way too slow, he proposed the Hyperloop — capsules that would whisk passengers along on a cushion of air through a tube at nearly the speed of sound. At $6 billion, he estimated, it would be far less expensive to build than the bullet train. Tickets, too, would be much cheaper. And the Hyperloop would be multiple times faster than the bullet train.

Musk’s announcement drew international fanfare. But the skeptics pounced. Hyperloop is a loopy idea, they said, and it won’t work. It will cost so much more than $6 billion. There are too many obstacles to overcome.

Admittedly, it sounds a little fanciful. But Musk has a track record of credibility. He cofounded PayPal, the online payment business, and sold it to eBay for $1.5 billion. He started SpaceX, the rocket company, and cofounded Tesla Motors, an electric car company. And he put his Hyperloop technical plans online for all to see.

Hyperloop is a big idea. Big things come from big ideas. They are the entrepreneurial spirit that makes this country the world leader in innovation. Hyperloop just might do what Musk says it would do. And, with the new court ruling that the bullet train proposal violates the terms of the 2008 voter proposition approving it, it’s more clear than ever that the bullet train is going nowhere fast.


