Despite breakthroughs in every scientific field from robotics to particle physics, fast, long-distance transportation still requires us to climb 40,000 feet up in the air just to travel a measly 570 or so miles per hour. The greater injustice, though, is that we have all the technology we’d need to make frictionless, mag-lev vacuum tunnel trains capable of speeds over 4,000 mph — that's New York to Tokyo in an hour and 42 minutes. So why aren’t we doing it? Gizmag takes a look at the history of the idea, the companies trying to make it a reality, and the inevitable drawbacks. Spoiler: there are some concerns about safety.