New York to Washington in 29 minutes so says Elon Musk (independent, dollar)

[juppiter]

Originally Posted by 11thHour

Cool concept but it'll never happen. Cities would rather blow big bucks on such other important society-advancing items such as stadiums.

I could see him leveraging private funding for this. In fact, this is undoable without leveraging private funding.

[LGR_NYR]

It takes me nearly two hours to go from Staten Island to 55th and 6th ave in Manhattan, a grand total of 23 miles. NY to DC in 30 minutes or less? Maybe if I sky dive in.

[LGR_NYR]

Originally Posted by 11thHour

Cool concept but it'll never happen. Cities would rather blow big bucks on such other important society-advancing items such as stadiums.

And welfare for the hood rats.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by Mtnluver8956

And your source of funding is way off.

Prove me wrong, this is another subject I know quite well. I'd suggest you carefully research before posting the first link that comes up in Google.

While on the topic not only fuel taxes funding roads but they are also used for mass transit both at the federal and state levels.

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

Why not just upgrade the current Amtrak/Acela train system? That would probably cost a lot less, wouldn't it?

[Dane_in_LA]

Musk is a pretty smart cookie and what he's done to reduce the cost of space travel is impressive by any yardstick. This, however, sounds a bit out there. Of course, if he reduces the cost of tunnel boring - and that's the kind of thing I'd not be surprised to see him do - it would have all sorts of interesting uses.

Like his desire to build a Mars colony (won't happen) drove SpaceX's development of lower-cost rocketry (very much happening) and in turn driving other people's space projects that used to be infeasible.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by Mtnluver8956

Maybe interstates 1 through 50 for war,

FYI the interstate numbering sytem is very specific, even numbers are east/west routes. 10 in the south and 90 in North. 5 on the West Cost and 95 on the east coast. If the primary number is preceded by a even number it's a loop or bypass, an odd dumber indicates a spur... Generally.

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

Originally Posted by pbmaise

One of the worst things to happen to US was the bus and General Motors bribes to eliminate street cars in big cities.

Those street car systems were privately owned. The transportation companies could do what they wanted with them. It made more financial sense for GM to run buses than to maintain those street car lines.

[AlongTheI-5]

Originally Posted by Mtnluver8956

Maybe interstates 1 through 50 for war, but the rest are not meant for war. And your source of funding is way off. See people simplify government when it's not that simple and talk about the FHA and DOT like experts when they are not.

Exactly. The single digit numbered highways are for tactical maneuvers. The rest are for strategic matters.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by Dane_in_LA

This, however, sounds a bit out there. Of course, if he reduces the cost of tunnel boring - and that's the kind of thing I'd not be surprised to see him do -

I'd agree, I'm not sure how you reduce the costs of a massive machine and running it. It is what it is... Always room for improvement but I'm skeptical there is much that can be done with this. There is other issues with this as well, that tunnel in Seattle was stopped for months by a single pipe and required massive amount of money to fix.