Is Branson’s hyperloop just plain loopy?

I WISH Richard Branson every success with his plans for a hyperloop, in which people would travel in pods propelled through a near-vacuum tube at speeds of up to 670mph (Mail). Instead of a four-hour train journey from London to Edinburgh, it would take just 50 minutes. This is the future, unlike HS2, but it’s a massive financial risk. The biggest likely problem, though, is passenger psychology. It would need only one traveller to have a panic attack to bring everything to a shuddering halt. And how would you extract someone from the tube mid-journey? Perhaps sedation would be the answer. TErrY HiCKMan, southampton.

THE hyperloop was predicted in Eagle comic in July 1950 as the Electrosender (pictured). Seriously, though, how long would it take for this contraption to comfortably accelerate and slow down from its top speed of 670mph? JoHn brownE, Holywood, Co. Down.

HS2, the conventional high-speed line to the North of England which is set to cost £100 billion, should be scrapped and Richard Branson given the go-ahead to finance and build his hyperloop network. Upon completion he should be given £25 billion, thereby saving the taxpayer £75 billion. raY H. DovEr, ingatestone, Essex.

RICHARD BRANSON wants to be launched into space, but I think he is already on another planet with his proposal for a hyperloop. I think that it should be re-named the loopyhype. MiCHaEL sCoTT, Poole, Dorset.