In 2013, Elon Musk published one white paper he teased the idea of zipping from Los Angeles to San Francisco in just 35 minutes via a vacuum-sealed tube — a system he called the hyperloop. The idea “stemmed from his hatred of California’s proposed high-speed rail system.” according to his biographer Ashlee Vance.
Ten years later, the most high-profile startup to try to follow in Musk’s footsteps — Hyperloop One — is closing its doors. And news of his death broke less than two weeks after the Biden administration was announced $6 billion in funding for high-speed rail projects across California.
It’s a big win for transit advocates, many of whom have spent decades advocating not just for high-speed rail, but for better rail service overall. (Biden’s announcement also included funding for a a host of other railway projects across the country.) But it’s not a clear win by any means.
First, many cities and states were lulled by the hyperloop’s siren song and then left behind. I still vividly remember publishing a story in 2018 about the collapse of Arrivo (another hyperloop startup created by one of the co-founders of Hyperloop One) and calling the Colorado Department of Transportation to ask about the company that was down, just to to realize the call they had no idea it had happened.
Colorado was not alone. Hyperloop One once promised West Virginia it would build a $500 million test and certification facility; in the State. He also built a test track near Las Vegas where he briefly moved some people through a tube—quite an achievement, apparently, for then-CEO Jay Walder requirement it was the “first new form of mass transit in over 100 years”.
Other hyperloop projects and companies remain, though largely outside the United States. Fortunately this country is already building momentum for investment in its rail system, with an emphasis on faster trains.
The most prominent effort is Brightline, a company that recently expanded its existing service in Florida all the way to Orlandoallowing passengers to travel there from Miami.
Brightline is also building what it calls “the nation’s first true high-speed rail network” between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. That project received $3 billion in funding recently announced by the Biden administration and is expected to begin in early 2024.
Building high-speed rail will take more than money. There are deep-rooted problems stands in the way stemming from years of deregulation. Projects of this size also struggle to stay on time and on budget. The but The big recipient of the newly announced federal funding — another $3 billion — is a high-speed rail plan meant to traverse the California backbone that was the original source of Musk’s ire.
Could the high-speed rail revival be in danger of a rematch with the world’s richest man? Perhaps, although train fans can take solace in how distracted Musk has become since that 2013 White Paper.
Besides, aside from a handful of engineering competitions held by SpaceX, Musk has only ever entertained his own hyperloop projects on a superficial level.
Musk once tweeted that he had “verbal approval from the government.” build “an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop”. It was never built. In April 2022 he claimed The Boring Company’s tunneling effort would “attempt to create a functional hyperloop.” The next day the company he tweeted “Full-scale Hyperloop testing begins later this year.” That also never happened.
Musk has spent the last decade doing little to hyperloop, essentially outsourcing his attempt to kill high-speed rail. As the demise of Hyperloop One hits this case, it looks increasingly like the billionaire has a decision to make: Does he care enough to take the time to finish the job himself?
