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Elon Musk is putting the hype – much of it believable – in Hyperloop. The Tesla Motors Inc., SpaceX and PayPal entrepreneur may not be the first to propose shooting people between cities at high speeds through tubes in a vacuum. His personal brand championing the idea gives it a fresh chance for success. Mr. Musk's Hyperloop may also cost a fraction of the standard transit line. That significantly enhances the appeal.

New York City had a one-car, two-stop pneumatic underground train 140 years ago. More recently, MIT's Ernst Frankel developed a similar-style train, pitched it to link Boston with New York and is now advising China on a project. He also told CNBC on Tuesday that Mr. Musk's plans bear some remarkable similarities to his own.

Give Mr. Musk the benefit of the doubt for now, though. He's trying to achieve with trains what he has already managed with payment systems, electric cars and solar energy – taking existing concepts that have struggled to get off the ground and devising ways to make them succeed, even if it takes years to make money. Much innovation works that way anyway, building on existing ideas. And it's the kind of ambition that internet-obsessed Silicon Valley could use more of.

Mr. Musk isn't doing it alone. He's just giving the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles rail concept a big kick-start. Tesla and SpaceX staffs are pitching in, too, before the concept is opened up for others to improve upon. That's the kind of cooperation that can yield results.

More important, perhaps, to potential financiers is that Mr. Musk reckons the price tag to connect the West Coast cities will run to $6.8-billion (U.S.), a tenth of what the conventional high-speed rail link currently under consideration may cost. Even if his estimates are optimistic, it probably will still be cheap by comparison.

That's an important element for local, state and federal governments. Taxpayers often end up footing the bill for large transportation projects. Most U.S. railroads, several of the old independent New York City subway lines and more recently the Channel Tunnel between France and Britain went bankrupt and required state aid.

Politicians, however, also can take the credit for the harder-to-value benefits of a good system. Reduced traffic, improved productivity and, in this case, lower pollution would be welcome. Without someone like Mr. Musk sticking out his neck, though, such opportunities rarely come along.

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