Chicago’s plan to let Elon Musk’s Boring Co. have a crack at building a high-speed, subterranean transportation line to whisk passengers between the city’s center and O’Hare International Airport is a coup for the fledgling infrastructure firm and speaks volumes about confidence in its billionaire founder—who hasn’t actually built such a system before.
The project includes drilling tunnels from Chicago’s Loop to the airport in which autonomous electric pods, built by Tesla and derived from its Model X crossover platform, would carry up to 16 passengers each and travel at up to 150 miles per hour. The Boring Co. is to cover construction costs and recoup its investment from passenger fares of as much as $25 for the 12-minute ride. The total cost and timeline for construction haven’t been set, though it’s “very likely” to take at least three years, Musk said.
The new line, dubbed the X, “is the fast lane to Chicago’s future,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a press conference. “It builds on our legacy of innovation and our legacy of invention.”
Musk’s company was selected over four other proposals, including a consortium involving civil engineering firm Mott MacDonald and JLC Infrastructure, an investment fund backed by former basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The Boring Co. has also won support from the Los Angeles City Council for a 2.7-mile Boring Co. test tunnel on the city’s west side, and Musk has proposed a similar high-speed, underground line between downtown Los Angeles and LAX.
“One of the great things about Chicago is the number of approving authorities is small,” Musk said at the press conference, noting that the line will be “one of the first publicly useful versions of the Boring Co.’s Loop. “We expect to start drilling later this year, perhaps as soon as three or four months.”
Under normal circumstances, a company that hasn’t built a working version of its train (and only has revenue from gimmicky sales of flamethrowers and promotional ball caps) couldn’t have been selected for this project were it not led by Musk. And between his pursuit of a clean car revolution and large-scale solar-power generation with Tesla, cheap rocket launches and Mars colonization at SpaceX, and his 2013 proposal for Hyperloop vacuum tube trains, who better to disrupt mass transit?
Those endeavors also remain works in progress. Musk recently reassured Tesla investors the company is on track to finally reach a critical goal of building 5,000 Model 3 electric sedans a week by the end of June, and then followed that up with a plan for staff cuts this week that will eliminate nearly 4,000 jobs. The company also remains deeply unprofitable, though he’s also committed to changing that starting with profits in the year’s second half.
SpaceX has had considerable success in the past year, recovering from a launchpad explosion, with its busiest schedule of launches to date, so far this year. Getting to Mars, however, remains an aspirational goal.
Musk has already committed more than $100 million of his wealth to getting the Boring Co. into operation but will need considerably more backing. At the press conference, he pointed out that he doesn’t expect to have any problem raising funds.
“I do think there is a role for doubters. It shouldn’t be taken as a given that things will work,” Musk said. “I’ve done a few things in my background that I think are pretty tricky. … This is a difficult thing that we’re doing. I’d hope that you cheer us on for this. If we succeed it’s a great thing for the city, and if we fail, well I guess me and others will lose a bunch of money.”
