Role and Position of ETT in the Future Comprehensive Transportation System

Abstract

Construction of Evacuated Tube Transportation (ETT) line will be a sequent evangel for human beings after trains, automobiles, airplanes and information technologies. Especially, ETT will pull the transportation out from the present morass radically, bringing new changes to the global economic and life style. Thus, there are some issues to discuss right now. For example, what will be the role and position of ETT in the future comprehensive transportation? What will be the relationship between ETT and existing transportation styles such as the railway, the highway and the airplane, competition, substitute or mutual supplement? This paper respectively reviewed the situation of existing 5 transportation styles, analyzed and reasoned above issues. According to this paper, ETT will bring some competitive pressure on existing railway, highway and aviation industries, sharing market freight and passenger resource. However, ETT wouldn't replace existing transportation styles, only a makeup or replacing part functions of existing transportation styles, for example, replacing the international express mission of aviation, and some distance transfer function may turn to ETT from trains, cars and airplanes. In addition, the attribute of ETT will be a combination of the railway and the tube transportation.