The fact that they agreed to build one in Moscow really amazed me. It felt exactly like the old space elevator startup that was "Visiting potential landing spots near or on the equator for the earth bound end of the tether." Or put another way, I think the hyperloop idea is pretty cool, but if the maglev train experience is any indicator, its 20+ years before you have something even <i>close</i> to a commercial deployment. Singularity or not, engineering a system of that complexity takes time.