This could be an interesting way to solve the "no CTA express route" dilemma (Chicago: legal)

[chet everett]

There are lots of interesting projects that Elon Musk has been involved with and the thought of his "Boring Company" creating a new "personal mobility" kind of subway that would be among the most modern transit solutions around is intriguing -- https://jalopnik.com/okay-sure-elon-...-ch-1820875441

Musk's firms are known for quickly attracting huge amounts of investor dollars but running into cash flow problems as, like all kinds of "big science challenges" they tend to "burn through" lots of capital as they scale up; potentially the ability to have a truly speedy and efficient ORD based transit option would be a nice revenue source for his firm (or a potential venture capital firm that likes transit based revenues...) as well testing out the sorts small scale passenger modules that would be necessary for the de-pressurized supersonic type tunnel that he has proposed as a new kind of city-to-city transportation option.

The city obviously has ZERO ability to fund or run any such system but they do seem more than capable of tapping into the sorts of legal minds that could craft agreements in a way that does NOT end up with the city on the hook for a raw deal like happened when they sold the parking meters --
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/ci...press-service/

All-in-all this could be a huge win for Rahm and Musk who both would come out looking like the kind of people that "get things done"at a point in their careers when such an image is crucial. Given the relative distances between ORD and the Loop as well as the overall extent of the CTA Rapid Transit system it is a shocking embarrassment that there in no true express route, Daley failed miserably in trying to use Block 37 as a "super terminal" for this much needed effort. It is the sort of thing that cries out for a better solution ASAP -- https://www.thetransportpolitic.com/...ed-and-unused/

The ability to use this as a stepping stone to much faster systems that could eventually be a legitimate replacement for some kinds of air travel would be a VERY interesting "flag in the ground" for firms like Chicago-HQ Boeing and United Airlines. That sort of thing would be just the kind of trigger to get Musk either on the "we need to take a equity stake in his firm" sort of friendly path forward OR "we must bury them" response that others have worried about... https://www.sciencefriday.com/segmen...m-to-possible/

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by chet everett

There are lots of interesting projects that Elon Musk has been involved with and the thought of his "Boring Company" creating a new "personal mobility" kind of subway that would be among the most modern transit solutions around is intriguing -- https://jalopnik.com/okay-sure-elon-...-ch-1820875441

Musk's firms are known for quickly attracting huge amounts of investor dollars but running into cash flow problems as, like all kinds of "big science challenges" they tend to "burn through" lots of capital as they scale up; potentially the ability to have a truly speedy and efficient ORD based transit option would be a nice revenue source for his firm (or a potential venture capital firm that likes transit based revenues...) as well testing out the sorts small scale passenger modules that would be necessary for the de-pressurized supersonic type tunnel that he has proposed as a new kind of city-to-city transportation option.

The city obviously has ZERO ability to fund or run any such system but they do seem more than capable of tapping into the sorts of legal minds that could craft agreements in a way that does NOT end up with the city on the hook for a raw deal like happened when they sold the parking meters --
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/ci...press-service/

All-in-all this could be a huge win for Rahm and Musk who both would come out looking like the kind of people that "get things done"at a point in their careers when such an image is crucial. Given the relative distances between ORD and the Loop as well as the overall extent of the CTA Rapid Transit system it is a shocking embarrassment that there in no true express route, Daley failed miserably in trying to use Block 37 as a "super terminal" for this much needed effort. It is the sort of thing that cries out for a better solution ASAP -- https://www.thetransportpolitic.com/...ed-and-unused/

The ability to use this as a stepping stone to much faster systems that could eventually be a legitimate replacement for some kinds of air travel would be a VERY interesting "flag in the ground" for firms like Chicago-HQ Boeing and United Airlines. That sort of thing would be just the kind of trigger to get Musk either on the "we need to take a equity stake in his firm" sort of friendly path forward OR "we must bury them" response that others have worried about... https://www.sciencefriday.com/segmen...m-to-possible/

It does sound promising. Clearly the CTA can't pay for it, but if the private sector can, that would be great.

[BigLake]

That's already on the table.

[chet everett]

It's "been on the table" but the NEWS is that the City has OFFICIALLY set a deadline for RFQs of January 24th 2018, a fairly short deadline AND Musk's Boring Company is OFFICIALLY going to be submitting their proposal -- those are pretty significant steps that strongly suggest that things could actually be moving BEFORE the 2019 Mayoral election.

This could dovetail nicely with some of the potential "regulatory streamline" that is supposed to encourage more such private sector investments in transit -- Feds writing rule to encourage private sector investment in public transit | TheHill