It's not unlike some high-rise evacuation systems:

http://fixyt.com/watch?v=vekxtAF5HPg

http://fixyt.com/watch?v=I8g7AXTzD_I

http://fixyt.com/watch?v=eohpyx8NzMg

You mean kind of like the public pneumatic tube transport in futurama?

The first thing I thought of was the cannon travel agency in Secret of Mana :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPVt4WBMaxE

There have been several Personal Rapid Transit [1] systems proposed with this sort of technology, e.g.: http://zapatopi.net/inteli-tube/

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Rapid_Transit

Lunchlady Doris, have you got any grease?