Announcement for futuristic 'Hyperloop' rail expected today

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — Billionaire inventor Elon Musk was promising to unveil plans on Monday for a super-high-speed “hyperloop” rail system.

Musk, the founder of SpaceX and co-founder of Tesla Motors and PayPal, says he has a plan for transportation that’s right of the “The Jetsons” cartoon series.

The idea is based on the old-fashioned pneumatic tubes that were once used to send mail between offices.

Musk’s plan involves building a giant pneumatic tube with some kind of Maglev train system inside that travels faster than the speed of sound.

Musk calls it the “hyperloop,” and claims passengers could travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than 30 minutes.

A trip from New York to London would take about 45 minutes, and going around the world would take just six hours, according to Musk.

He says the system would run on solar power and could be ready in about 10 years.

The “hyperloop” would be about one-tenth the cost of a high-speed rail system and a quarter of the cost of building a freeway, Musk says.

Critics question whether the physics of such an idea are possible.

They also point out that there would be many practical obstacles, including securing all the necessary land.