Officials counter Musk's claim of "verbal approval" for hyperloop

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk on Thursday said he had received "verbal" approval to start building the "hyperloop", an ultra-high-speed underground transport system linking New York and Washington, DC, which would cut travel time between the cities to about half an hour.

In tweets on Thursday Musk said he had "just received verbal government approval for the Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC hyperloop."

He offered no details on what entity had green-lighted the project that could result in the world's longest tunnel.

Twitter Photo

However, officials in Washington and New York later said they had not approved any project, and under federal rules Musk would need extensive environmental and building permits to mount such an ambitious project.

Basic civics lessons also would make it clear that the US system of government does not operate on verbal approvals.

A bold but potentially promising project

Musk, the CEO of electric car maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, is seeking to revolutionize transportation by sending passengers and cargo-packed into pods through this intercity system of giant vacuum tubes.

He recently started an enterprise called the Boring Company to build transport tunnels for the system, which he says would be far faster than current high-speed trains and use electromagnetic propulsion.

File: A Hyperloop One test vehicle is prepared at a DevLoop track in the Nevada Desert in a photo taken May 12, 2017 and released July 13, 2017. /VCG Photo

Asked for details on who had offered approval, the Boring Company said in a statement it expected "to secure the formal approvals necessary to break ground later this year."

Musk also tweeted that a first set of tunnels would be to "alleviate greater LA (Los Angeles) urban congestion," adding that the company would "probably" do a loop from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and another in Texas.

"City center to city center in each case, with up to a dozen or more entry/exit elevators in each city," he wrote.

File: Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, during the International Space Station Research and Development Conference in Washington, DC on July 19, 2017. /VCG Photo

Musk acknowledged there was still a "lot of work" to do before formal approval was granted, but said he was optimistic.

Amtrak's high-speed Acela train currently takes nearly three hours to cover the roughly 220 miles (355 km) between New York and DC, assuming no delays. While the hyperloop promises a NY-DC trip in 29 minutes.

Officials deny 'approval'

Signaling that Musk's tweets may be premature, the press secretary for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted a reply: "This is news to City Hall."

Musk said in a later tweet that supporters should lobby government officials. "If you want this to happen fast, please let your local & federal elected representatives know. Makes a big difference if they hear from you," he wrote.

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Soon after Musk's first tweet a spokesman with the Maryland department of transportation asked: “Who gave him permission to do that?”

“Elon Musk has had no contact with Philadelphia officials on this matter,” said Mike Dunn, the city spokesman. “We do not know what he means when he says he received ‘verbal government approval’. There are numerous hurdles for this unproven ‘hyperloop’ technology before it can become reality.”

Ben Sarle, a spokesman for the New York City mayor’s office, also said in an email: “Nobody in City Hall, or any of our city agencies, has heard from Mr Musk or any representatives of his company.”

“The New York state department of transportation did not give verbal approval for a hyperloop,” said spokeswoman Jennifer Post.

A journalist's tweet and Elon Musk's reply /Twitter Photo

Anthony McCarthy, the spokesman for the Baltimore mayor, Catherine Pugh, said: “Mr Musk’s announcement on Twitter was the first that the city heard of the hyperloop project,” but he expressed excitement toward the idea.

Nevertheless, the White House showed optimism in the project, saying in a statement that it had had "promising conversations to date" with Musk and was committed to "transformative infrastructure projects."

Expensive venture to take

By traveling in vacuum tubes on magnetic cushions, hyperloop trains would avoid being slowed down by air pressure or the friction of wheels on rails, making them faster and cheaper to operate, supporters say. A number of startups have begun to develop the technology, despite concerns about the cost and practicality.

File: A sled recovery vehicle moves a test sled back to the starting position following a propulsion open-air test at Hyperloop One in North Las Vegas, Nevada, US on May 11, 2016. /Reuters Photo

On its website, the Boring Company says some tunneling projects today cost as much as 1 billion US dollars per mile but its goal is to lower costs by a factor of 10 or more.

In 2013, Musk said a hyperloop covering the roughly 400 miles (640 km) between Los Angeles and San Francisco would cost less than 6 billion US dollars and take seven to 10 years to build.

(With inputs from Reuters and the Guardian)

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