The problem with making elevator shafts longer is the tensile strength of steel cables; a thicker cable weights more and so for a longer and longer cable more a

The problem with making elevator shafts longer is the tensile strength of steel cables; a thicker cable weights more and so for a longer and longer cable more and more of the cable is only around to carry the cable itself, much the same way as increasing payload on a rocket. Thicker cables require bigger sheaves to avoid fatigue, but the sheave can't be larger than about half the shaft width. Just gets impractical. The solution is cable-less elevators. Rack and pinion elevators seem to be used only for construction elevators, guessing NVH is not up to snuff. Thyssen Krupp has maglev elevators though (experimental): https://engineered.thyssenkrupp.com/en/multi-our-sideways-moving-elevator-system/ https://engineered.thyssenkrupp.com/en/multi-our-sideways-mo... edit: Also if you go too fast it'd be really uncomfortable due to the air pressure changing too quickly. Vertical acceleration is also really unpleasant, personally I find the quickly accelerating elevators I've used to be very nauseating.