Traveling 200 mph in a pandemic. Which would be safer: High-speed rail or Hyperloop?
Hyperloop and high-speed rail technology, which are both being pursued in North Texas, could be permanently changed by the COVID pandemic.
If you can imagine a time years from now when either Hyperloop or high-speed rail could be running in the Dallas-Fort Worth region — whipping riders across the land at 200 mph or more — which form of futuristic transportation would be better for social distancing?
The North Central Texas Council of Governments is looking into both technologies for proposed passenger services connecting Dallas to Houston, and Dallas to Arlington, Fort Worth and beyond. Both systems, if approved by federal and state regulators, would take years to build and operate — and hopefully by then the current COVID pandemic will be a distant memory.
“You don’t build a Hyperloop or high-speed rail for 10, 20 or 30 years. You’re building it for 50 to 100 years, and over that time frame our position is the science of (disease) prevention will supersede the science of the pandemic,” said Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
But it’s not a stretch to think that the way mass transportation systems are designed in the future could be permanently changed based on what we are learning today about socially distancing in public spaces such as train cars and stations. At airports, for example, those Plexiglass barriers recently installed at ticket counters across the world likely will remain years after the COVID-19 virus is defeated.
And if the pandemic has lasting effects on mass transit, Hyperloop supporters say their technology is superior to high-speed rail.
High-speed rail proponents disagree, of course.
‘A very flexible system’
Hyperloop is an experimental technology that works similar to a pneumatic tube at a drive-through bank, but on a much larger scale. Riders would step into pods, which would then travel inside a giant tube at hundreds of miles per hour.
The system uses electric propulsion and magnetic levitation in near-vacuum conditions inside the tube, making it possible for the pods to travel at hundreds of miles per hour with extraordinarily high energy efficiency.
“One of the benefits of the Hyperloop system is you have smaller pods that can fit fewer people than a train would,” Diana Zhou, director of project strategy for Virgin Hyperloop, said in a phone interview. Virgin Hyperloop is one of several companies developing the technology.
“With a train, you could have hundreds of people, maybe thousands, but with Hyperloop you could have only 10 to 30 people per pod. It’s a very flexible system,” Zhou said. “Given the restraints on social distancing, you could configure a system to have fewer or more pods.”
Recent research by Virgin Hyperloop shows that pods could launch within seconds of each other, and still operate safely within the Hyperloop tubes. As a result, Hyperloop would make it easier for people to travel in smaller groups without causing long lines or other delays.
Hyperloop technology also got a boost recently, when the U.S. Department of Transportation published guidelines for states to follow when seeking federal approval for projects. That move also cleared the way for Hyperloop projects to qualify for federal grants and loans that are already available for high-speed rail.
The guidelines were created by the federal agency and the Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology Council, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said in a news conference announcing the break-through.
“This guidance bridges the gap between innovator and regulator, prioritizes safety during development without hampering innovation and promotes mutual awareness between industry and government,” Chao said.
More space for Texas travelers
But supporters of high-speed rail in North Texas say their technology is superior.
Carlos Aguilar, president and chief executive officer of Texas Central, the company proposing to build the Dallas-Houston high-speed rail route, says the rail cars that would be used on the route offer plenty of space for distancing.
For example, he said, the trains would be much wider than what passengers are accustomed to on airplanes.
The aisles will be wide enough for a person to use their own wheelchair — unlike on many aircraft, which require wheelchair users to transfer to a specially-made narrow wheelchair.
“We have committed to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act compliance in everything we do,” Aguilar said in a phone interview. “We are designing our trains to be much less dense than they would be otherwise. We’re not going to have any middle seats. We will have 16 doors instead of one, which is what you have on an airport or a pod.”
The Dallas-Houston service, Aguilar added, will operate with eight rail cars holding up to about 50 people each, for a capacity of about 400 riders. That’s about half the number of cars and less than a third the number of people who take train trips in Japan, where rail cars favored by Texas Central Railway are already being used.
The Dallas-Houston line would use trains similar to those on the Shinkansen lines that are part of the Central Japan Railway.
“It makes access and egress incredibly fast,” he said. “All of this is to ensure that these distances are kept.”
Aguilar said Texas Central is expecting to receive a record of decision from the federal government allowing the construction of the Dallas-Houston route in the next six to eight weeks.
Texas Central hopes to open the Dallas-Houston line to the public in six years.
The company got a boost recently when the Surface Transportation Board, which regulates railroads, pipelines, trucking company and other industries, determined that Texas Central should be considered part of the interstate rail network. That designation indicates that Texas Central has a right to survey property, which is an important power since the company needs private property to build its exclusive-use railroad tracks from Dallas to near the Gulf Coast.
Aguilar said that the ample room on Texas Central cars was part of the design before the COVID crisis caused a global economic crisis.
“When you have situations like these, they are not permanent,” Aguilar said of the pandemic. “But if they do happen, you have the operational flexibility to accommodate the need. Is it a bit of luck that it was a commitment by us to have less density in our cars? I would say yes. That was the best design we could deploy.”
This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 11:00 AM.
