Supermarket Hyperloop

[MrMobodies]

I found an article about Hyperloop being used to deliver groceries and other stuff at 40mph in 90cm underground pipes.

Press reader

How parcels could be piped to your door at 40mph
26 Nov 2018 Daily Wail Reporter

GOODS bought online could be transported across the country through underground pipes using magnetic propulsion.

The network would run under the embankment next to the hard shoulder of motorays and give retailers a quick and cheap alternative to road transport.

The idea is similar to the hyperloop passenger transport technology being developed by designer Elon Musk but the pipes would only be 90cm (35in) in diameter.

Parcels and groceries would be moved on carriages along a magnetic track, propeling them forward at just under 40mph when activated by an electric charge.

The project is being developed by designers at Magway Ltd with onine supermarket Ocado, the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, Space Syntax and Force Engineering.

The team is working on a trial and the project is supported by a £650,000 grant from Innovate UK, a government technology funding agency. It hopes to run the first pipeline along a 56 mile route from Milton Keynes, where Ocado is based, to Park Royal in London. It is claimed it could be operating within three years.

Magway’s cofounder Phill Davies said: ‘This is a game changer for ecommerce and logistics. By keeping them close together, we can move up to 12 million of these carriages every week.’

Not clear if they mean they are going to eventually build pipes to reach into homes or delivering them locally.

[helius]

Pneumatic package delivery at 35 M.P.H. was installed over 100 years ago in Philadelphia, New York, and London:
https://untappedcities.com/2013/03/15/nycs-pneumatic-tube-mail-network/

[MrMobodies]

I know Royal Mail have got a 6.5 mile Rail Road tunnel across London that they started to build in 1927 but they were much larger above 2m diameter and they went at 40mph and it is still standing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Post_Office_Railway

[rdl]

This is likely just a point to point system for limited use. It would be interesting to see a detailed analysis of the infrastructure cost, including maintenance. Amazon's drone delivery probably has a better chance of commercial success.

[EEVblog]

We already have cheap and efficient transport of out online farting novelty toys.
This is a massive and costly infrastructure system to overcome what problem exactly?

[MrMobodies]

Instead they will just be creating a 90cm problem in the ground.

[rdl]

Well, the "Team" have solved the problem of where their salaries are coming from for a while.

[MrMobodies]

When Ocado tosses salads down there they won't need spinning by the time they get to you.

[cdev]

What a pipe dream.

[cdev]

Pneumatic package delivery at 35 M.P.H. was installed over 100 years ago in Philadelphia, New York, and London:
https://untappedcities.com/2013/03/15/nycs-pneumatic-tube-mail-network/

I remember seeing systems like this in action in the 1960s or 1970s at buildings like the (gorgeous art-deco) Empire State Building where they were (or are still?) installed.

[MrMobodies]

That pneumatic tube also reminds me of something in a movie called Brazil in 1985.

[SiliconWizard]

This is a massive and costly infrastructure system to overcome what problem exactly?

The problem with Magway not being profitable!

[Domagoj T]

Can we please not call every transport system involving tube a hyperloop and not invoke Elon Musk's name at every such occasion?
The concept has been around for more than 200 years.

[Wan Huang Luo]

We already have cheap and efficient transport of out online farting novelty toys.
This is a massive and costly infrastructure system to overcome what problem exactly?

It's to overcome the problem of money sitting idle.

[bd139]

I know Royal Mail have got a 6.5 mile Rail Road tunnel across London that they started to build in 1927 but they were much larger above 2m diameter and they went at 40mph and it is still standing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Post_Office_Railway

Worth a look if you're into industrial decay like myself...

http://www.placehacking.co.uk/2011/04/24/security-breach-london-mail-rail/

I used to do a lot of urban exploration until I got caught once  ... fortunately only a caution from that one

[helius]

I remember seeing systems like this in action in the 1960s or 1970s at buildings like the (gorgeous art-deco) Empire State Building where they were (or are still?) installed.

Probably the most common use today (in USA) are drive-thru bank windows. Although some are being replaced by ATMs, the drive-thru bank services multiple lanes of traffic using pneumatic carriages to transport items (such as cash, checks, deposit slips) from the customer in their car to the cashier and vice versa. Sometimes they are also installed in bank lobbies for after-hours deposits.

[apis]

This isn't really a pneumatic tube system though, nor evacuated tubes, just tubes with some sort of linear motor rail system:

I suspect they underestimate the cost of the infrastructure though.

[MrMobodies]

Worth a look if you're into industrial decay like myself...

http://www.placehacking.co.uk/2011/04/24/security-breach-london-mail-rail/

I used to do a lot of urban exploration until I got caught once  ... fortunately only a caution from that one

That would be nice.

To go into old ruined decommissioned power stations with a generator and power low voltage things up to see if they still work.

[ajb]

The problem with ideas like this is that some entity has to acquire a pretty extensive and exclusive right of way, and it's fairly invasive to build out.  These aren't like a buried cable which has a very small footprint, or utility tunnels where a relatively small tunnel carries multiple utilities.  It also isn't like water/sewer, where the total ROW is extensive but only because literally everyone benefits from it many times a day. 

The use case in the OP, where you have essentially a warehouse in one place and a high concentration of people who want things from that warehouse on a daily-ish basis in another place with a whole lot of people and traffic in between is kind of an ideal scenario, because they only have to make one point-to-point tunnel, and at the receiving end they can do the last mile distribution by more conventional means, or simply have the customers come to the location to pick things up.

Building out a more extensive city-wide (but far from going to every home, that would just be silly) package delivery network would be neat, but is probably several orders of magnitude beyond economically feasible.  MAYBE if you were building up a new, extensively planned city from scratch you could do it as part of the municipal infrastructure, but even then you're better off putting your planning efforts and development funding into mass transit for people rather than for things.  Think about it: how many delivery vehicles does it take to service a metropolitan area?  How many cars would it take to get all of the people of that metro area to and from work/school/shopping every single day?  Clearly getting the cars off of the road provides vastly more benefit than getting rid of the delivery vehicles!  In fact if you can eliminate the vast majority of personal vehicles by offering fast and reliable public transit, then you probably don't have to worry about the delivery vehicles at all anymore.

[SiliconWizard]

I don't think those companies are concerned with the usefulness of their concepts nor the practicality of them, but more with their potential to raise money.
The more megalomaniac they look, the better.
It's very much like the banking system. What matters for the system is not to make things work now, but the promise of making them do wonders sometime in the future.

[MrMobodies]

I don't think those companies are concerned with the usefulness of their concepts nor the practicality of them, but more with their potential to raise money.
The more megalomaniac they look, the better.
It's very much like the banking system. What matters for the system is not to make things work now, but the promise of making them do wonders sometime in the future.

A 90cm pipe?
For the amount of work they might as well make it larger.

[cdev]

This is a neat story. Evidently in the NYC system, a renowned submarine sandwich deli was somehow on the system. (Note the shape, ideal for pneumatic transport) and postal workers could get their lunch sent to them via the tube.

http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/pneumatic-tubes.pdf

Also see https://untappedcities.com/2013/03/15/nycs-pneumatic-tube-mail-network/

[Wan Huang Luo]

This is a neat story. Evidently in the NYC system, a renowned submarine sandwich deli was somehow on the system. (Note the shape, ideal for pneumatic transport) and postal workers could get their lunch sent to them via the tube.

http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/pneumatic-tubes.pdf

Also see https://untappedcities.com/2013/03/15/nycs-pneumatic-tube-mail-network/

i took the time to read the whole thing. When I saw this thread, I initially was going to post about how useful this system would be specifically in New York City. Now, days later, after reading your post, it Looks like I’m about 125 years too late. Absolutely fascinating. My gratitude for your contribution.