Column: The Hyperloop - what's next for Elon Musk's 'fifth mode' of transportation?

It’s faster than a speeding bullet train, and cheaper, too. It’s a bit like Space Mountain at Disneyland, except that it can get you from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 35 minutes. It would be virtually impossible to crash, and cost only $6 billion to build. A ticket might cost only $20.

All of the above hints had been used by serial entrepreneur Elon Musk to describe his “hyperloop” mass transit system. But as of Monday, anyone can read about it in far more detail in a document that Musk has posted on his Tesla Motors blog, as promised.

Musk, whose name is often preceded by the label “visionary,” wants to stir interest in his concept for a low-cost, self-powering, super-high-speed rail service between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It would go 800 miles per hour, with stops along the way.