Virginia transit officials drove through Elon Musk's tunnel. They'll stick with railways and roads.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, Popehat:

"OH SHIT I FORGOT MY MASS TRANSIT PROJECT IS DUE TOMORROW, MR. DEWILIKERS WILL KILL ME, I NEED TO THROW SOMETHING TOGETHER"

Link to tweet

Virginia transit officials drove through Elon Musk’s tunnel. They say they’ll stick with railways and roads

By Ned Oliver -- March 21, 2019

Virginia transit officials flew out to California earlier this year to check out a tunnel dug by Elon Musk’s Boring Company and, well, they think the state should stick with traditional railways and roads for now.

“It’s a car in a very small tunnel,” Michael McLaughlin, Virginia’s chief of rail transportation, told members of the Commonwealth Transportation Board’s public transit subcommittee on Wednesday. ... “If one day we decide it’s feasible, we’ll obviously come back to you.”

The board has been discussing high-dollar investments in the state’s rail infrastructure, including a $1.3 billion bridge between Virginia and Washington. But board members say those conversations have been clouded by questions about whether such upgrades might be rendered obsolete before they’re even completed if Musk’s much-hyped tunneling and hyperloop technology advances beyond its current experimental stage.

Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX with a mixed record for delivering on crazy-sounding ideas, announced the Boring Company in a series of tweets while he was stuck in traffic.
....

[Historic NY]

1. Isn't it just a model?

Obviously its designed for a different kid of vehicle. Good thing Roebling built some tiny bridges.

[OneBro]

2. Sounds like they should have postponed the demonstration.

From the article: “At this stage, all Musk has to show for his work is a Tesla Model 3 running on guard rails through a bumpy, 1.14-mile long demonstration tunnel under an industrial park in Hawthorne, California. (Musk said employees ran out of time to smooth the road bed, and the Los Angeles Times reports it was “so uneven in places that it felt like riding on a dirt road.”)

It’s pretty easy to condemn the guy who tries and fails. America’s ground transportation is so many decades behind Europe and Asia that Musk should be appreciated for at least trying to improve things. I can’t imagine what the Wright brothers first test flights looked like.