Evacuated Tube Transport
http://et3.com proposes maglev vehicles in long vacuum tubes for intercity transport. Accelerating vehicles to very high speeds with coil guns is expensive, so even though a launch loop without energy recovery wastes about 2.4x the kinetic energy of the vehicle, an in-tube loop accelerator will probably be much cheaper than a lot of switching electronics.
Assuming 2kW/tonne for levitation power P, 8300km between San Francisco and Tokyo, and a maximum acceleration of 10 m/s2. For an acceleration and deceleration time of ta the maximum velocity is 10ta and the trip time is ta + d/10ta. The energy used for a trip is E = 2(ta + d/10ta)+12ta2 joules per kilogram.
Assuming 500kg/passenger, and $0.20 per kilowatt hour, the trip looks like so, versus varying acceleration times:
accel time |
vmax |
trip time s |
trip time hr |
E accel |
E lev |
E total |
$/passgr |
20 |
200 |
41520.00 |
11.53 |
4800.00 |
83040.00 |
87840.00 |
2.44 |
40 |
400 |
20790.00 |
5.78 |
19200.00 |
41580.00 |
60780.00 |
1.69 |
41 |
410 |
20284.90 |
5.63 |
20172.00 |
40569.80 |
60741.80 |
1.69 |
60 |
600 |
13893.33 |
3.86 |
43200.00 |
27786.67 |
70986.67 |
1.97 |
100 |
1000 |
8400.00 |
2.33 |
120000.00 |
16800.00 |
136800.00 |
3.80 |
150 |
1500 |
5683.33 |
1.58 |
270000.00 |
11366.67 |
281366.67 |
7.82 |
200 |
2000 |
4350.00 |
1.21 |
480000.00 |
8700.00 |
488700.00 |
13.58 |
300 |
3000 |
3066.67 |
0.85 |
1080000.00 |
6133.33 |
1086133.33 |
30.17 |
400 |
4000 |
2475.00 |
0.69 |
1920000.00 |
4950.00 |
1924950.00 |
53.47 |
600 |
6000 |
1983.33 |
0.55 |
4320000.00 |
3966.67 |
4323966.67 |
120.11 |
libreoffice spreadsheet source . . . . libreoffice download
The pollution cost will vary by the source of grid energy, and ticket costs will include operating expense, amortization of infrastructure, and profits. Given the \$\$\$\$\$\$\$\$ cost of infrastructure, a loop-driven ETT system won't happen soon.