There are plenty of difficulties with getting a hyperloop or other vactrain system installed, but none of the criticism I'm seeing of the concept is correct.
For example, they give the example of a tank truck that is evacuated and is crushed in a fraction of a second by atmospheric pressure. This is a shockingly poor example. These tanks are intended to be filled under positive pressure, and the metal cylinder has thin walls (1/8" or so) which can hold the load because they are loaded in tension, but not in compression. Any competent engineer would simply make the wall thickness sufficient to sustain this pressure. This varies with different tube diameters but Musk's original paper did some calculations on this and it's a half inch or more.
This same thing would also make the pipe immune from most forms of attack from terrorists. It would take a gun caliber 2" or bigger to punch a hole, or a pretty large focused explosion, through a pipe this thick.
Even if the pipe is punctured or develops a leak, all that happens is pressure is lost, and the vehicles within slow down and air friction increases.
Their solution for earthquakes is also simple and effective. The pipe is attached in a way that allows its support to move on the pipe. For quakes with movement up to the compliance of the mechanism, nothing will happen at all and operation can proceed unaffected. This is well over magnitude 6. For a bigger quake, there's a chance the travel of the mechanism will be exceeded. This won't break the pipe but there may be damage. Vehicles in operation would slow down and might need rescue, but it's hard to imagine a scenario where an earthquake, even of magnitude 9 or more, actually killing hyperloop passengers.
