Significant areas of the world have established a hypersonic, evacuated tube transport system connecting their major population centres.* Its routes primarily extend throughout Russia, Northern Europe, Canada and the US. These trains are more advanced versions of the slower, simpler prototypes first introduced decades previously.*
This form of transport works by combining the principles of maglev trains and pneumatic tubes. The trains, or vactrains as they are called, travel inside a closed tube, levitated and pushed forward by magnetic fields. After passing through an airlock, the train cars enter a complete vacuum inside the tube. With no air friction to slow it down, the vactrain can reach speeds far beyond that of any traditional rail system. The fastest routes can reach speeds of around 4,000 mph (6,400 km/h)* – or around five times the speed of sound – compared to a 300 mph maglev train a century earlier.*