Billionaire Elon Musk, founder of The Boring Company, once again criticized expensive rail projects, this time targeting California’s High-Speed Rail project.
What Happened: Responding to a tweet mentioning the project’s escalating cost from $33 billion to over $100 billion, Musk called it “crazy.”
“They've spent $9.8 Billion, no track has been laid, and they estimate it will cost another $100B+. For a single system 800-mile-long system. Maybe it's not about willingness to invest?” the post read.
This isn’t the first time he expressed skepticism toward large-scale rail initiatives, previously citing concerns about timelines and taxpayer burdens.
"This will take an eternity and hurt taxpayers badly," he said last month about the San Francisco Downtown Rail Extension.
"The @boringcompany can solve this problem for ~1% of this cost," he then added, touting the abilities and cost-effectiveness of his own tunnel-making company. California high-speed rail plans also require tunneling.
Why It Matters: Forbes reports that the high-speed rail project may start in 2026 to be operational for trains by 2030, the planned opening date for the first segment.
The Boring Company aims to solve traffic with underground tunnel systems or “loops” that enable rapid point-to-point transportation.
It has currently completed three projects — the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) loop, the Hyperloop Test Track, and the R&D Tunnel in Hawthorne.
Tunnel digging is an expensive process. As per Musk’s company's website, several tunnel-digging projects now cost between $100 million and $1 billion per mile.
"In order to make vast tunnel networks feasible, tunneling costs must be reduced by a factor of more than 10, with TBC's Loop tunnels currently priced at approximately $10 million per mile," the company said, highlighting its own cost efficiency.
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