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this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2024
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China already has high saturation of regular high speed rail, and I'm guessing this would supplement that potential for long distance travel. It mostly seems like flex to me, if they can build this then it shows how advanced technologically China has become. This is the tech that US hyped up, but was never actually able to make it work. China putting this into practice would be a clear sign that China outpaced US technologically.
China first put a maglev train into service in Shanghai in 2002. It's just now planning to roll out inter city maglev services in the next couple of years. Call that a 25 year gap from first trial run to broad implementation.
So if they can put a Hyperloop into short limited service by 2030, you're still looking at 2055 for broad implementation.
I guess the point is that you can't get to the far future without first going through the near future. Difference is that Chinese planners and leaders will look at a transport plan that has goals out to 2055 and take it seriously. Western leaders only care about plans they can implelent this election cycle.
I can't imagine this stuff will see operation in the near future, but there's so much that you learn from even just trying to build something like this that will be applicable in a lot of other areas. Big ambitious projects are traditionally really good for pushing the technological envelope.