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Entrepreneur Elon Musk Plans “Hyperloop” From NY to Washington

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Elon Musk, the billionaire innovator and entrepreneur known for the SpaceX program, Paypal, and others, claimed Thursday to  have received “verbal” permission from the U.S. government to create a super-high speed underground rail system that could take passengers from New York to Washington in less than half an hour.  

“Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop,” Musk tweeted Thursday. “If you want this to happen fast, please let your local & federal elected representatives know. Makes a big difference if they hear from you.” 

Ever the visionary, Musk appeared to have been laying the groundwork for this plan several months ago, when he formed the Boring Company, whose purpose is to create enhanced tunnel-boring equipment needed to enable a massive project like the Hyperloop. 

Following the intense response to his Hyperloop tweets Thursday, Musk clarified via Twitter that there was “still a lot of work needed to receive formal approval,” but said he was “optimistic that will occur rapidly.” 

According to an NPR report this week, Musk said that if completed, the hyperloop would feature stations with “up to a dozen or more entry/exit elevators in each city.” 

While the prospect of shortening the more than four-hour train commute from New York to Washington to a mere half hour will certainly appeal to many, some experts have thrown cold water on the project, voicing reservations about the logistics and expense of such a massive undertaking. In the blunt words of Institute of Transportation Studies associate director Madeline Brozen, the costs of the project would be “incomprehensible.” 

According to NPR, Brozen noted that underground projects are more costly. Brozen compared the Hyperloop to a California-based high-speed rail project which is expected between $7 and $10 billion. Putting things in perspective, Musk’s hyperloop would travel five times the speed of the California rail project.  

“It’s quite easy to draw up enthusiasm for a project in 140 characters when you have 10 million followers on Twitter,” Brozen said, according to USA Today. “It’s a very different ball game when you’re trying to bring a mega-project to fruition.”

Musk, whose other ambitious projects include the electric car company  Tesla and a brain-computer interface called Neuralink (still in its infancy), appears to be undeterred by the skepticism. In December of last year, Musk tweeted that “traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging.” A few hours later, Musk made clear that this was more than a passing whim, tweeting “I am actually going to do this.” If nothing else, Musk has proven that he one of the hallmark qualities of any great inventor: the ability to approach problems from an unorthodox angle, and ask “what if?” Whether that “what if” can overcome practical and logistical challenges, we shall soon see.  

By: Max Rozwaski

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