The Mercury News Weekend

Musk says he’ll tunnel between O’Hare, Chicago.

- By Rex Crum rcrum@bayareanew­sgroup.com TRANSPORTA­TION

If there is anything one should know about Elon Musk’s Boring Co., it’s that there is nothing boring about it at all.

Just last week, the Boring Co. handed out the first of its “Not a Flamethrow­ers” to those who ponied up $500 for the flame-throwing device. AndMusk has been pretty public about the Boring Co.’s efforts to dig transporta­tion tunnels underneath parts of the Los Angeles area that are meant to help alleviate that region’s traffic snarl.

Now, it looks like the Boring Co. could be on the way toward breaking ground in another location: Chicago.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the administra­tion of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel has chosen the Boring Co. to build a high-speed undergroun­d train line that will run between O’Hare Internatio­nal Airport and downtown Chicago. The line is planned to have 16 autonomous­ly driven passenger cars that will run at speeds of more than 100 miles an hour.

The proposal offers up the prospect of transporti­ng passengers between the area of downtown Chicago called the Loop and

O’Hare in 12 minutes for $20 to $25 a ride.

The Boring Co. was chosen from four other competing bids. The company will now begin negotiatio­ns with the city of Chicago on a final deal for the project. The initial plans call for the building of a newstation at O’Hare and the completion of a previously mothballed station originally built under the administra­tion of former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.

No timeline was given for completion of the highspeed rail line, but the Boring Co. is said to be footing the bill for the entire project.

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 ?? STAFF ARCHIVES ?? Much like the Chicago project, Boring Co. also has plans for a similar transporta­tion tunnel underneath parts of Los Angeles.
STAFF ARCHIVES Much like the Chicago project, Boring Co. also has plans for a similar transporta­tion tunnel underneath parts of Los Angeles.

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