MUSK’S CRAZY TRAIN

For a smart billionaire, Elon Musk (above) sounds like a real dummy.

Take last week’s Twitter gem: “Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-BaltDC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins.”

Really? Either the PayPal genius can’t add or he’s never dealt with the government. More likely he got approval from another guy who’s never dealt with government: President Trump.

I asked Dr. Michael Horodniceanu — former president of MTA Capital Construction (he built the Second Avenue Subway), now chairman of NYU’s Civil Engineering Advisory Board — about the realities of getting approval that quick for something that big.

“First off, the maglev (magnetic levitation train) would have to go 500 miles per hour to get there in 29 minutes, with no stopping between D.C. and New York, which is unrealistic. Problem with that is the average maglev speed is 220 mph, although there is one that has reached 360. In addition, you’d need to go through a complicated environmental process through countless political jurisdictions.

“It would need state approvals from New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and D.C. Then it would need city and county approvals for everything, not the least of which are underground utilities (that already exist). Then there’s eminent domain (expropriating people from their property for public use), and environmental impact studies from each.”

So, what? You can’t just call a guy and get approval for a five-state magnetic levitating rail system that would cost $400 billion? Who knew?