The Light at the End of the Tunnel

In an earlier post I talked about Jules Verne and Paris in the Twentieth Century. One thing I failed to mention as being off in Verne's prediction is that transportation in his vision is primarily through elevated pneumatic tube trains.

Well, although this may not quite be pneumatic it got me thinking about PITTC again. Looking at the concept more closely, I wonder if it'd really work? It's wacky but if someone told me that you could propel a car with an machine that, when fed dead dinosaur juice, makes little explosions a number of times every second...

I'd be curious to see a critique of the system. I, for one, don't really get excited by travelling in an airless tube at 4000 mph. But, hey, New York to LA in less than hour without having to eject myself from atmosphere, hmmmmm, I may have to think about it.

(photo credit: Carole N., image found at stockXchng (sxc.hu) a free stock photo community website)