Rumor: High-speed tube travel concept in the works

[backscatter712]

40. Worst case accident scenario.

You're riding on the tube train, zooming from LA to New York at 4,000 miles per hour. That's faster than a mile a second. Faster than the SR-71. Almost as fast as the X-15.

And the SR-71 and X-15 were designed to fly in the extremely thin air at 100,000 feet+ of altitude. You're in a tube down on the ground. Pumped free of air to make 4,000 mph possible.

Now imagine that all of the sudden, maybe because a backhoe was digging in the wrong spot, or terrorists were up to no good, there was an explosive pressurization of the tube about 5 miles ahead. Something big enough to let the air pressure by the leak be close to outside pressure.

If it can happen to Keystone XL, it can happen to the tube train.

Your train's going over a mile a second. There's no time to stop or divert. You reach that leak five miles ahead in 5...4...3...2...1...

The result will be something like the accident that destroyed the Space Shuttle Columbia. You'll slam into a wall of air at 4,000 miles per hour. That air will superheat and incinerate your train in a matter of seconds. Your train will become a ground-hugging, tube-riding meteor.

They'll be giving your remains to your next of kin in an ashtray.