Transportation

The Latest Fantastic Transportation System That Will Never Be Built

We'd love to get from New York to Beijing in 2 hours, but we won't hold our breath.

All remaining points for ambition go to the ET3 company — slogan: "Space Travel on Earth" — for its proposed airless transport tubes capable of slinging travelers around the globe at anywhere from 370 miles per hour (for local trips) to 4,000 m.p.h. for intercontinental ones. That's Beijing to New York in two hours, for those keeping score at home, borne on the power of vacuums and hope.

The maglev tube system is frictionless, according to the company's website, which enables its sleek passenger capsules to coast at the desired speed after an initial acceleration with electric motors. (For more juicy technical details, head over to Gizmag.) A pair of tubes carrying the six-person capsules can handle the same capacity as a 32-lane freeway, says ET3. Which leaves just one unanswered question: Can you point us to the café capsule?