To address the braking concern: the author of the article says that the Hyperloop stops and starts at 0.5g, which would make it take 60 seconds to stop. That's not entirely true. 0.5g is the acceleration that the pods would experience under normal circumstances.
Everyone reading this (unless they're on the ISS or flying a plane in a sine curve) is presently experiencing 1G, give or take a tiny bit. 2G is felt by lots of people on a day-to-day basis during normal activities. Some rollercoasters get up to 4.5G. Astronauts train at very high G. If there's a catastrophic failure, the hyperloop could slow down at much higher Gs (some informal calculations says between 5 and 6 Gs wouldn't be unreasonable). If 0.5G is 60 seconds, 5G is well under ten seconds. Pods spaced 30 seconds apart would have plenty of time to stop.
Some might say, "But 4+ Gs can cause an untrained person to black out!" Yeah, and you're on a hyperloop traveling 750+MPH that's just experienced catastrophic failure. And the scenario that is being explored involves either the tube in front of you having been obliterated, the pod in front of yours having come to a complete halt instantly, or someone dropped a blue shell.
To address the pod loading/unloading issue: stations are not located along the main track, they happen at branches. Proper timing means that branched stations can be bypassed, allowing pods to bypass the station ("nonstop" pods, if you will) without shortening or lengthening delays for pods at the station. This means that when a station diverts a pod, it creates a 60 second gap instead of two 30 second gaps. Another station further down the line could then fill that gap with a train that had arrived earlier.
This means that pods could load/unload much more slowly than if they were forced to arrive/depart in the order that they passed through the vicinity of a station. And pods that are not stopping at a station would experience no delay.
Main stations ("terminal stations") could have a buffer of pods. If it takes granny five minutes to get off the pod, who cares? Just put a different pod in the queue for departure. Order shouldn't matter, you're at the end of the line. Ever been on MUNI and seen the inbound trains show up on the outbound tracks in a different order? Exactly.
To address the time comparison between the hyperloop and HSR: this is completely speculative, but it's doubtful that the HSR could achieve its proposed time of 2:48. The author talks about this like it's a hard fact. I'd be surprised if HSR could hit three hours, or even four. Has this guy ridden on Caltrain? The sheer number of delays is startling.
Hyperloop, OTOH, is decidedly much more reliable since the tube is sealed. Nothing can get in the way of the tube, cars can't collide with pods, it doesn't matter what the weather is, etc. Even if the Hyperloop doesn't meet its 30-40 minute target, I think it would be much more reliable than HSR, and there's room for it to improve as well as the technology improves.
Do you mean the submitted article? I don't think I mentioned the g forces.
I totally agree though. The g limit acceptable, especially in a reclined couch, is much higher than is applied. Would be a trade off with speed and curve radius. Regarding stopping I agree even more (yes, even more than totally). Trying to limit the design 'emergency' G to 1g lateral (so 1.4g net) is about as reasonable as trying to limit the design g in a plane crash to 1g lateral. As a passenger my main concern in an infrequent emergency is that I a) don't die and b) am not significantly injured. If it happens once in a hundred thousand journeys and I walk away with light bruising from the harness, I couldn't care less.
Everyone reading this (unless they're on the ISS or flying a plane in a sine curve) is presently experiencing 1G, give or take a tiny bit. 2G is felt by lots of people on a day-to-day basis during normal activities. Some rollercoasters get up to 4.5G. Astronauts train at very high G. If there's a catastrophic failure, the hyperloop could slow down at much higher Gs (some informal calculations says between 5 and 6 Gs wouldn't be unreasonable). If 0.5G is 60 seconds, 5G is well under ten seconds. Pods spaced 30 seconds apart would have plenty of time to stop.
Some might say, "But 4+ Gs can cause an untrained person to black out!" Yeah, and you're on a hyperloop traveling 750+MPH that's just experienced catastrophic failure. And the scenario that is being explored involves either the tube in front of you having been obliterated, the pod in front of yours having come to a complete halt instantly, or someone dropped a blue shell.
To address the pod loading/unloading issue: stations are not located along the main track, they happen at branches. Proper timing means that branched stations can be bypassed, allowing pods to bypass the station ("nonstop" pods, if you will) without shortening or lengthening delays for pods at the station. This means that when a station diverts a pod, it creates a 60 second gap instead of two 30 second gaps. Another station further down the line could then fill that gap with a train that had arrived earlier.
This means that pods could load/unload much more slowly than if they were forced to arrive/depart in the order that they passed through the vicinity of a station. And pods that are not stopping at a station would experience no delay.
Main stations ("terminal stations") could have a buffer of pods. If it takes granny five minutes to get off the pod, who cares? Just put a different pod in the queue for departure. Order shouldn't matter, you're at the end of the line. Ever been on MUNI and seen the inbound trains show up on the outbound tracks in a different order? Exactly.
To address the time comparison between the hyperloop and HSR: this is completely speculative, but it's doubtful that the HSR could achieve its proposed time of 2:48. The author talks about this like it's a hard fact. I'd be surprised if HSR could hit three hours, or even four. Has this guy ridden on Caltrain? The sheer number of delays is startling.
Hyperloop, OTOH, is decidedly much more reliable since the tube is sealed. Nothing can get in the way of the tube, cars can't collide with pods, it doesn't matter what the weather is, etc. Even if the Hyperloop doesn't meet its 30-40 minute target, I think it would be much more reliable than HSR, and there's room for it to improve as well as the technology improves.