Ghosts of the Hyperloop

A futuristic concept in transportation speeds towards reality, as a Hyperloop railway carries its first passengers along a short test track in Nevada. This is a small-scale demonstration of a system that could send transport pods whipping between cities through underground vacuum tubes at 1,000km/h (620mph). The multibilliondollar scheme is ambitious, but, given Elon Musk’s recent success in ferrying passengers to the International Space Station, who can doubt his ability to build a railway? Perhaps though he should take warning from the Victorian ghosts of an earlier vacuum railway.

In 1864 brave passengers paid sixpence each to experience