Thoughts re Hyper Loops?

[RobertInOntario]

I started to read the article on this Hyper Loop and to be quite honest I am seeing nothing but problems.
Basically this guy is trying to build a vacuum tube system [like they used to have in department stores and office buildings], but make it for people.
This tube is nearly 12' in diameter and would need to be built to withstand the stresses of maintaining an atmospheric pressure of almost zero, that alone is going to require some serious structural steel fabrication, and he wants to do it over long distances using dedicated tubes for each city pairing.
This tube system will require an almost straight right of way, with super large radius curves in both the horizontal and vertical planes, so the Capital cost of purchasing the Right of Way will be huge, and we havent even considered the Environmental Impact, and NIMBY law suits and counter law suits.
The speed he talks about 1200 kph, will require speed up and slow down distances or you risk snapping the necks of your test tube passengers.
The energy requirements of this proposal will be huge, both in the invested energy cost from making all the high quality steel, the welding and fabrication, the reinforcement steel and the aggregates and cement used in the structural concrete, as well as the operating energy costs of achieving and maintaining a vacuum at almost zero, not just in a hyperbaric chamber, but in one stretching hundreds or thousands of miles.
Now as folks interested in railways we know that stretching steel over long distances causes problems with expansion and contraction and results in occasional break in twos and large gas and oil pipes have similar problems, so just how much of a problem do you think this elongated hyperbaric chamber will have in dealing with such issues? Remember that if you engineer in expansion and contraction sections you will have to maintain the vacuum.
The Capital and Operating Costs of this project are going to kill it before it even gets off the ground.
Oh and another thing, unlike a plane you wont be able to look out the window.
This proposal makes the idea of High Speed trains like the TGV and the Bullet Train seem cost effective and affordable by comparison.
It wont fly period.
Mark

Interesting thoughts, Mark -- they make a lot of sense.
Rob