Let’s look at the actual text of the article.<p><i>“Toronto-based startup TransPod has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government to study the potential of a high-speed hyperloop system and help it attract investors.”</i><p>And let’s translate that from polite Canadian PR speak: this will never, ever, ever happen, but it sounds nice, so we’ll put it out there.
I live in Alberta. There is no way this will be economically viable in the short term.<p>Here's what this is competing with:<p>Driving from Edmonton to Calgary, downtown to downtown, takes about 3 hours. My car can do a round trip on a single tank of gas with enough left over to do a little running around. The cost is about $60 in fuel, an unknown amount of wear-and-tear on the car, and three hours of time. I've done this trip with four people, so that works out $25/person assuming $40 worth of wear-and-tear on the car. The depreciation and insurance costs are not a factor here since those happen regardless.<p>If you don't own a car, but have a driver's license, you can pick up a Communauto (our version of ZipCar/Car2Go/etc) and drive it down there. This would probably cost less than $100, and Communauto includes fuel, insurance, and maintenance, but the cars in their fleet aren't necessarily ones that I'd choose for a road trip.<p>The flight from Edmonton to Calgary takes about 45 minutes from takeoff to landing. You need to arrive at the airport 1.5-2 hours before takeoff. Plus you need to get to the airport at the start of your trip and to your destination at the end. The cost is between $100 and $300 depending on how far you plan ahead, plus three hours of time.<p>There is currently no passenger rail service between Edmonton and Calgary.<p>There is bus service between the two cities. Red Arrow runs between Edmonton and Calgary and isn't too bad. You still have to get to the bus terminal at the start and your destination at the end, but the terminals may be in walking distance if you're going downtown to downtown. The cost is $172 plus three hours of time.<p>To work, this needs to find the sweet spot of taking less time than driving, being less of an annoyance than air travel, and priced right to make up for its own set of shortcomings. $25 per person plus three hours is a really tough price to beat.
The Saudi funded Hyperloop project should be a good litmus test for Hyperloops around the world. It's ideal: across flat land, no mountains / tunnels, lots of money behind it.<p>Not sure how far along they are in construction though.<p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49096675" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49096675</a>
Note that TransPod is the maglev vactrain variant of hyperloop, distinct from the air bearing system in the original hyperloop white paper. This avoids new technology, and lets you use existing COTS maglev track, but... would be <i>more</i> expensive per mile than air bearings. Curious choice for a train in Alberta.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TransPod" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TransPod</a><p>As other commentors have noted, this is a pre-pre-pre announcement. They're not even talking about breaking ground for another 5 years.
As an Albertan living in Edmonton and as per the feasibility study mentioned in the article, I don't think this is happening. That said, if by some miracle it does happen, that would be awesome!
The new development appears to be that the province is allowing the test track to be built on crown land in a place where it could become a part of the full line, if actually built. Previously, the test track would need to be removed even if the line went ahead.<p>While it's still unlikely a full hyperloop line will be built, this agreement does goose the odds upwards slightly at little public cost, provided precautions are put in place to ensure the company building the test line does actually pay for its removal if the full line is not built.
Typical drivers can do the trip in ~2.5hrs. Mind you that is door to door w/ your actual destination.<p>Depending on regulations (similar to preflight security), this could be a 1 hour trip. If you need to also take a taxi to and from the hyperloop, you're not looking at much time savings. IMO the real value of these options is that you can do something else in the mean time. You can read, you can make calls, you can sleep.<p>Also: Obligatory monorail comment for hyper loop: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDOI0cq6GZM" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDOI0cq6GZM</a>
This isn't Elon's Hyperloop for those wondering. The term Hyperloop's been misappropriated and applied to different technology to piggyback on the hype Elon caused.