Magnaloop/Hyperloop

This technology has a very promising future - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperloop

However, it has already been mentioned in the futuristic book, Return To Earth:

“Magnaloop?” Don asked, “What is it?”

“At the turn of the century, a large vacuum tube was built by a company to transport people from Los Angeles to San Francisco in half an hour. It was a very promising concept. Our Government, one then, was very enthusiastic about it. The company got a green signal to go ahead with their ambitious plans. They started the construction of the tubes. However, that was all they could do. They ran into several problems. Budget overruns, people having second thoughts about traveling through a tube, and so on. The company went bankrupt. The tubes lay there, gathering dust, for several years. Then San Andreas happened. We became an island. Initially, there was chaos everywhere. We experience a severe shortage of essential goods, like food, water, and power. When the dust settled, someone remembered the tubes. Why not use them? Thus, Magnaloop was born. The principle is very simple. We levitate the freight trains magnetically in a vacuum to make them glide on the tracks with the help of a powerful engine.”

“Showing Magnaloop,” the voice said, and they concentrated on the screen.
A tall and well-lit building was filling the screen. It was nondescript building with gray colored walls. A grass lawn lay in form of it with a concrete parking lot to the side. A few vehicles were parked there. It was sitting on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, overlooking crashing waves. A humungous tube was jutting out from one of its sides and going into the water. A Tall barbed-wire fence surrounded it on three sides, the fourth side being in the ocean.

“It looks like the one we traveled through when we were on Etoo,” Kim shuddered, shaking the horrible experience they had.

Return To Earth