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OpenHyperloop edited this page Aug 25, 2013 · 1 revision

Overview

Elon didn't say too much about stations and seemed to handwave many of the details without too much thought about specifics and logistics.

Since the stations are the first and primary component of the Hyperloop that riders will experience, I think they deserve some extra attention.

Passengers, Cars, Freight, Oh My!

The logistics for loading passengers, cars, and freight are quite different, so they will need to be handled differently and there are a few different options for that.

  1. Place each of them on a separate level

  2. Place each of them in a separate station (e.g. there will be Passenger stations, Car stations, and Freight stations)

Option A: Separate Levels

Elon wanted a nice large open area for passengers. This is a great idea, however, if we have cars and freight on separate levels within the station, the passengers may have lots of travel up several floors to get over the other areas to arrive at their nice large open area.

Option B: Separate stations

This option makes the most sense. Granted, they could still be nearby to each other, but they are overall separate stations. This would somewhat make sense that you send freight from one freight station to another freight station etc. The only catch might be car stations since they might need some type of easy transport to the passenger station so passengers can drop off their car and then go grab a passenger pod.

Car Stations

As briefly mentioned above, car stations will be a place the rider can drop off their car with a valet. The driver must tell the valet what their destination is so the car can be sent to the correct station (and possibly grouped with other cars going to the same place, or to another city along the route). The valet will issue a ticket to the driver that they will use to identify and pickup their car at the destination. The driver will be able to track the status of their car using that ticket to ensure the car reaches the destination safely.

Freight stations

These stations will need large warehouse areas to store the freight that needs to be loaded and unloaded from the pods. Also, it will need docking bays so trucks can load and unload their cargo. Freight will need to be warehoused in case the truck to pick it up is not or cannot be there when the freight arrives via Hyperloop.