Elon Musk says he received ‘verbal’ approval to build Hyperloop One between NYC and D.C.
In a tweet around 11:00am Thursday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he “just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop.” The Hyperloop One plan will take passengers from NYC to D.C. in a mere 29 minutes via a high-speed tube moved by electric propulsion, with stations at each city center and “up to a dozen or more entry/exit elevators in each city,” according to Musk. In a response to a comment on his initial tweet, he said: “First set of tunnels are to alleviate greater LA urban congestion. Will start NY-DC in parallel. Then prob LA-SF and a TX loop.”
Musk started Hyperloop One in 2013 with many employees coming from SpaceX. When their plan was fully revealed in April, the company said it planned to hire a team of 500 engineers, fabricators, and scientists by the end of the year in order to start moving cargo by 2020 and people by 2021.
As 6sqft previously explained, “Passengers and cargo are loaded into a pod which gradually accelerates with electric propulsions through a low-pressure tube. Then, the pod lifts above the track using magnetic levitation and moves at airline speeds” of more than 700 miles per hour.
Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2017
Though Musk didn’t specify which agencies and/or states gave the approvals today, he has been talking to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel about building a tunnel between O’Hare International Airport and downtown, and last month he spoke with L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti about building a tube between Los Angeles International Airport and Union Station. In its entirety, the system would connect 80 percent of the country, making a cross-country trip just about five hours long.
The DevLoop test track
In May, the company completed their first successful test ride in the Nevada desert. Saying that it was, “the first new mode of transportation since the Wright Brothers flew over the dunes near Kitty Hawk, N.C.,” Hyperloop coasted for 5.3 seconds at 70mph along the 1,640-foot-long “DevLoop” test track. Additionally, Musk’s tunneling venture the Boring Company has started test digging near the SpaceX headquarters in California. Unconfirmed reports have speculated that the project will cost between $84 and $121 million per mile.
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