Railroad Train

Should there be a railroad train tunnel from Australia to Seattle for folks who have a fear of flying?

With bullet trains becoming more popular all the time, and these “mag-lev” trains of the future still being developed, don’t you people think that someday there will be a gigantic tunnel for high speed trains that runs through the Pacific Ocean? They already have one between Great Britain and France, right? In my vision, this amazing railroad of the future would run (at about 423 miles per hour) between Sydney, Australia and Seattle, Washington, with a lovely 1-day stopover in Hawaii. Free hula dance shows, the works.

Flying bites, so a nice train ride would be great. But the speed could be much greater, even faster than a plane… A plane is limited by it’s speed through the atmosphere, a large plane with a meaningful passenger carrying capacity is limited by aerodynamic drag. There’s the “space hop” option, where the plane would skip along the top of the atmosphere, avoiding drag and able to fly much faster, but still not as comfortable as a train.

Think 5,000 mph! Create a vacuum inside the train tunnel, no aerodynamic drag, and maglev propulsion. Fantastically expensive, but in some future with near unlimited energy and will, it is theoretically possible.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vactrain

Triple SCT class locomotives with long freight train – Australian Railways, Railroads & Trains