Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT) is an airless, frictionless form of transport which, its designers say, is safer, cheaper and quieter than trains or aeroplanes. Using airless vacuum tubes, six-seat, 183kg passenger pods are designed to reach phenomenal speeds of up to 4,000 mph (6,500 kph), using far less energy than conventional transport methods, the Daily Mail reported Thursday.

That would allow passengers to travel from New York to Los Angeles in just 45 minutes, from New York to China in just two hours, or all the way round the world in six hours, according to the newspaper published in Britain.

The designers behind ETT believe that their system can achieve 50 times more transportation per kWh that electric cars or trains by cutting out air or rolling resistance, the report said.

They envisage that it would work as a form of Personal Rapid Transit, and would accordingly be networked like motorways with car-sized capsules automatically routed like Internet traffic.