Musk's Tunnel Company Being Considered For $8.5 Billion Amtrak Project

Forbes

17-05-2025

A Tesla drives through a tunnel built by The Boring Co.
Last week, Elon Musk's The Boring Company (TBC) announced that it has been continuously mining in a Zero-People-in-Tunnel (ZPIT) configuration, which in Musk speak, means that his tunneling company has been continually digging a tunnel to cater to its futuristic Tesla robotaxi underground transport system.
And thanks to Musk's ties, or dare we say, favors that he's earned with certain government agencies through his DOGE activities and others, his The Boring Company is now being considered for a major multi-billion-dollar Amtrak project.
According to the New York Times, federal regulators are in talks with his tunneling company to see whether TBC could save money on the Frederick Douglass Tunnel program which is being built to connect Baltimore to Washington and Virginia. Estimates for the project started at $6 billion but have ballooned out to $8.5 billion with rising material costs. A
While The Boring Company is one of a number of corporations to being considered for this new Amtrak contract, the discussions raise an alarming number of red flags about Musk's multiple conflicts of interest as he splits his time between Tesla, TBC, SpaceX/Starlink and X, his role as President Trump's right-hand man, and as master overseer of DOGE, which has cut resources to agencies that are supposed to regulate his companies.
The Boring Company shared videos of its ZPIT configuration and explained why this is a huge milestone.
The Boring Company (TBC) says its mission is to create, safe, fast-to-dig, low cost transportation (tunnels) with its main purpose to alleviate traffic congestion and enable rapid point-to-point mobility.
Musk says that to solve traffic issues, roads must go 3D, which means either flying cars or tunnels are needed. 'Unlike flying cars, tunnels are weatherproof, out of sight, and don't conflict with existing transport networks,' he added. His philosophy is to be commended, but the reality appears to be different. Please read on.
Just to put things into perspective with what we know now, the level of the project that appears to have impressed Amtrak officials is Musk's so-called 'Loop' in Las Vegas. This Loop has in fact, already been realized—to a limited extent—with the first all-electric, zero emissions tunnel system located at the Las Vegas Convention Center—making it the first commercially operating Loop system that will eventually, according to TBC, be able to travel at speeds of up to 150 mph. The Las Vegas tunnel may only be 1.7 miles long at present, but even that achievement has been enough to grab the attention of Amtrak.
But to play the devil's advocate, we have been hearing about The Boring Co.'s tunnels for over seven years now, and development has been painfully slow. Many readers may recall news of Musk's first tunnel foray when he invited journalists back in 2018 to test-ride his one mile-plus long tunnel section—the so-called L.A. transit tunnel—from which many media came away unimpressed due to the rough ride. Musk later explained that the tunnel was a prototype and that the surface would eventually be smoothed to resemble cruising on glass.
Stay tuned, as things could develop rather quickly if Amtrak gives a green light.