(PNS reporting from GUANAJUATO, MX) Not to be outdone by Space X founder Elon Musk’s proposed high speed “Hyperloop” rail system, a Mexican engineer has plans to commercialize his country’s high speed travel infrastructure, a proprietary closed system that has been in operation for years.
Researchers and engineers in this high tech city in Mexico’s Silicon Barrio are not impressed with Musk’s Hyperloop, a system of people-sized pods that move through a network of air-free tubes built over or under the ground at speeds of up to 800 MPH.
“We have had almost the same method of transportation a very long time, so I do not understand what the big deal is,” Universidad de Guanajuato Prof. Carlos Sagañez told PNS Tuesday.
“The American Hyperloop does not even exist yet our system has been used for decades.” The Mexican subterranean high speed travel system, once known as the “narcotunnel,” will be rebranded and marketed as the “HyperLupe,” he said.
“We will compete with the gringos in the race for a super-fast system of delivering people and goods. In fact, we have already beaten them,” said Sagañez.
The Hyperloop promises to get a passenger from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes. The Mexican HyperLupe system can get a passenger and several hundred kilos of international commercial shipments across the border in 30 minutes or less.
Sagañez says the calculations back him up:
Thirty minutes is a super speed, because if you have tried to cross the border in a car, it can take you four hours to move two miles. That is 1/2 a mile an hour. Do the math, pendejo!
Future plans include completing a HyperLupe system that reaches a major consumer center, either Hollywood or Beverly Hills.
Guanajuato’s Silicon Barrio boosters were enthusiastic.
“We need to continue building a new economic model here, insteading on relying solely on our traditional exports of guano and juato,” said Chamber of Commerce official Donalda Crump.
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