Dugout Loop

Question 1:

From some key statements;

> The fares are not finalized but will cost around $1.

> it could be possible to increase ridership per game to 2,800 per game

> Between games and events Dugout Loop would transport 250,000 people per year.

>The Boring Company. This project will be 100% privately funded and will require zero taxpayer dollars.

Say we assume full capacity, 2 events a day and travel both ways. With these metrics the annual revenue is: $4,588,000.

There's no way that covers the investment. So what else is happening to make this financially viable? maybe private car use of the loop lift at a premium? stadium co-funding to promote events?

Question 2:

2 of the image look like single line tracks. Are they assuming as its a stadium that all traffic will go one way, then the other later? 2 tunnels? There must be something about this...

...Anyway never been to a city where the underground/metro isnt a great way to get around so keen to see this space develope.

I love the Q&A format; the writing is excellent: clear, elegant, to the point.

I wish I could see similar writing on more company/project websites.

As for the project itself, I have zero interest in being a consumer in the sports industrial complex so I’m questioning if this is the best route from the perspective of the city’s needs.

I don't get it. How does this improve on the underground subway? I'm unconvinced that making the tunnels smaller means that the construction costs will be significantly cheaper and faster. Further, the electric skates make no sense from an operational or RAMS perspective:

1. They're smaller so you need a lot of them, which means wear and tear = possibility of failure is higher;

2. They're inefficient in terms of energy use (gotta charge those batteries first) vs third rail that supplies continuous redundant power;

3. How are the electric skates driven? Autonomous? If they're relying on cameras to do autonomous driving, any disruption in the tunnel lighting will kill them all dead.

4. Lighting those tunnels continuously will not be cheap.

5. If the electric skates are driven independently, how will others behind know if one has broken down in front?

6. How do you maintain headway if the electric skates don't know positions of those in front of them? How do you make sure they don't collide if all you have is a camera?

7. Emphasis on average speed is weird, no passenger actually cares about the average speed of the carriages carrying them, only the frequency between those carriages that they can get onto to get to their final destination.

8. How do those electric skates know they've reached their destination and open the doors for passengers to get off? The illustration shows tightly packed electric skates. Do they travel up the loop lifts and then exit? How will these loop lifts be operated?

This doesn't seem any different from a regular subway, only smaller tunnels, and smaller carriages carrying passengers, without any rail and other wayside equipment. Why not a battery-electric bus?

If you're going to do all the work to tunnel under LA, why not just build a conventional subway? A conventional subway would carry orders of magnitude more people - 250,000 people a year is a few percent of the traffic that even a lightly used subway line carries.

One question I couldn't see answered in the FAQ is what happens if one of the electric skates breaks down?

Given each of the skates is independently driven, the chance of failure would be magnified by N, for N skates within a tunnel. Seems like failures could be quite common and would affect the entire tunnel?

> 2,800 per game or event (5% of Stadium capacity)

Why not use bus-size vehicles? Assuming the same speed and following distance, moving from 16 to 80 passengers would increase system capacity by 5x, meaning four stations could serve 100% of Dodger Stadium capacity (vs 20).

This part of their plan never made sense to me.

Whenever I read about high speed underground tunnel travel, I always feel a little weird because it just doesn't feel safe to me - even though I'm sure the people working on this are more than capable of running the numbers. I hope I'll be proven wrong because hyperloop transport is a super futuristic thing that would be cool to see. I wonder if folks back in the early 1800s felt the same way about trains?

This project sounds like it was designed to lose money for the sake of good publicity. I'm sure if it works out well for LA, we'll quickly see efforts to establish similar systems in other major cities with LA as the precedent before refocusing on profitability. If we're all riding in Boring Company trains to work 30 years from now, remember it started here! haha

They keep calling it public transportation, but say it will be funded by the boring company?

So is it going to be publicly owned and privately operated?

> Electric skates will carry between 8 and 16 passengers.

> The fares are not finalized but will cost around $1.

> Initially, Dugout Loop will be limited to approximately 1,400 people (approximately 2.5% of Stadium capacity) per event. Based on City and community feedback, it could be possible to increase ridership per game to 2,800 per game or event (5% of Stadium capacity).

Is this guy for real? That is shockingly low-density. The fair market price wouldn't be anywhere near $1, otherwise the tickets will sell out instantly. What this venue clearly needs is an actual metro station in its vicinity.

> Construction of the tunnel and the two loop lifts is expected to last up to 14 months (likely much less).

Call me skeptical. Seattle tried to build a tunnel and it took... wait is it still happening??

I’d like to know what they’re doing differenty in their digging process.