Wait, so there's no low-pressure component to this project? If I'm reading correctly it's basically a series of high-speed electric shuttles in the tunnel rather than anything like the hyperloop concept.
With a ~4 minute travel time, the tunnel is probably short enough that going faster isn't worthwhile.
This is unrelated to the Hyperloop concept.
It's actually related. The tunnels are meant to be forward compatible with Hyperloop. Just no vacuum for short distances.
It’s 3.6 miles. Why over engineer it?
I had assumed that if they were going to the trouble of digging a multi-mile tunnel they would use it as a test bed for key hyperloop technologies. It's obviously not going to make any money, so it seems like it's more of a proof of concept to help pitch bigger projects to cities in the future. But as-is, this has lower passenger capacity per minute and more failure points than a fast lightrail system.