What if you took the principle of magnetic acceleration, created a bunch of acceleration gateways in space, and then shot space trains through it? Have catching gates on the opposite end for the deceleration part.
What's the maximum speed that magnetic acceleration can accelerate an object to in a vacuum before the object is travelling so fast that the magnetic effect can no longer impact upon it as it passes the gates?
I wanna build some fucking space trains. What can I read that's explored this?
You're basically describing a mass driver . It doesn't need to go around the whole planet and it still needs rockets at the end to get into orbit or to other planets. It does remove the need for a first stage which is the biggest stage in terms of mass and fuel consumption. Rocket engines that can be used in space are much more efficient than ones that can be used on Earth or other planets with thick atmospheres.
I think you might be interested in an Aldrin Cycler . It's a big space station that would go close to both earth and mars using natural orbital mechanics so it doesn't need to use any fuel. The idea is that all the big heavy long-term life support equipment would go on the Aldrin Cycler while the people going between Earth and Mars would just need a small spacecraft with just enough life support and fuel to get to the Aldrin Cycler. It's also like a train in that we can put a bunch of them on similar orbital "tracks" so if you miss one you can catch the next one.
So the path would be as follows: wait for the Aldrin Cycler to be in the correct position, mass driver sends you from Earth to space, high-efficiency rocket propulsion to orbit, another rocket burn to the Aldrin Cycler, stay in the Aldrin Cycler until it gets to Mars, get out of the Aldrin Cycler and back into your small spacecraft and then do a rocket burn to Mars (or one of Mars' moons).