I was hoping that this thing would fade away as soon as even minimal research proved it was presently unfeasible. Now we have Richard Branson behind this shit, and we have to wonder if the man has gone senile…
The Hyperloop is a piece of shit. There's no reason why it can't work, even with present materials, but it will never be competitive with present forms of transit in price, safety, or reliability. I guarantee this statement for the next 35 years1).
On the other hand, if you ever had an insect infestation in one of these train cars, all you'd have to do is put it in the vacuum chamber with the hatch open for a few minutes. That would be kind of cool…
Think about the capsule/train car inside the tube for just a few seconds, or minutes if you're dumb. This thing is basically a space ship. It has to survive repeatedly transitioning from the atmosphere to a vacuum and back. There are some stresses involved here. Just a couple. Don't forget that it has to have big and roomy hatches that can be easily opened and closed to allow passengers to move in and out of it rapidly2)3). It will have to be painstakingly inspected, maintained, and repaired. The inspection and maintenance requirements involved here will exceed that of airliners4). And we haven't even started to talk about the track yet…