Vacuum tubes could be used for super-fast public transport

Imagine hopping on the Tube in London on your way to work in the morning - and getting off near your office in New York City just three-quarters of an hour later.

If the designers of one revolutionary idea for the public transport of the future are right, that's just what we could be doing one day.

Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT) is an airless, frictionless form of transport which, its designers say, is safer, cheaper and quieter than trains or aeroplanes.

Using airless vacuum tubes, six-seat, 183kg passenger pods are designed to reach phenomenal speeds of up to 4,000mph (6,500kph), using far less energy than conventional transport methods.

That would allow passengers to travel from New York to Los Angeles in just 45 minutes, from New York to China in just two hours, or all the way round the world in six hours. Read More