Elon Musk to compete to fund high-speed
Loop in Chicago
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[November 30, 2017]
(Reuters) - Tech entrepreneur Elon
Musk said on Tuesday The Boring Company will compete to fund, build and
operate a high-speed Loop connecting O'Hare Airport to downtown Chicago.
Musk, the chief executive of electric car maker Tesla Inc and rocket
company SpaceX, recently started 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.
Earlier on Wednesday, Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked respondents to
present proposals to develop, design, equip, finance, operate and
maintain an O'Hare Express operating system through a public-private
agreement with Chicago. (http://bit.ly/2j1rHsC)
"Although cost estimates for the project are not yet known, the RFQ
(Request for Qualifications) stipulates that the O'Hare Express Service
will be funded solely by project-specific revenues (like fares or
advertising) and financed entirely by the concessionaire," Mayor
Emanuel's office said in a statement.
"There will be no taxpayer funding for the project."
Musk is seeking to revolutionize transportation by sending passengers
and cargo packed into pods through an intercity system of giant vacuum
tubes known as the "hyperloop."
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Elon Musk, founder, CEO and lead designer at SpaceX and co-founder
of Tesla, speaks at the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition II in
Hawthorne, California, U.S., August 27, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake
When asked on Twitter to elaborate on his "high-speed loop" proposal
that would link O'Hare Airport to downtown Chicago, Musk tweeted, "A
Loop is like a Hyperloop, but without drawing a vacuum inside the
tube."
"Don't need to get rid of air friction for short routes," Musk
added.
Passengers will travel in "electric pods for sure. Rails maybe,
maybe not," Musk said in another reply.
(Reporting by Rishika Chatterjee and Shubham Kalia; Editing by
Gopakumar Warrier)
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