Elon Musk revives 35-minute LA–San Francisco Hyperloop plan, claims it could cost under 5% of California high-speed rail

Elon Musk revived his long-standing vision for a high-speed transportation alternative between Los Angeles and San Francisco early Thursday, April 9, suggesting that his tunnelling venture could deliver a faster system at a fraction of the cost of California’s delayed high-speed rail project.

In a post responding to an online discussion, Musk said The Boring Company could construct a Hyperloop tunnel linking downtown San Francisco and downtown Los Angeles for less than 5% of the cost of the state’s rail project while outperforming any high-speed rail currently operating. Musk’s tweet received more than a million views within hours.

His comment came amid renewed scrutiny of the California High-Speed Rail project’s ballooning costs. In a recent 60 Minutes report on CBS News, officials said the line connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco could ultimately cost about $126 billion, roughly triple the original price tag approved by voters in 2008, when the California High-Speed Rail Authority estimated it would cost $45 billion.


Musk was replying to a social media user who claimed that if the $126 billion were used instead to subsidize free flights between Los Angeles and San Francisco at current demand levels, it could fund roughly 150 to 200 years of travel before the money runs out.

California High-Speed Rail vs Musk’s 2013 idea of ‘fifth mode’

The proposed high-speed rail line to link San Francisco and Los Angeles in two hours and 40 minutes. With a projected top speed of 220 mph, the trains would be the fastest in the United States and among the fastest globally. Construction began in California’s Central Valley in 2015, but full completion remains years away.

Against this backdrop, Musk’s claim that The Boring Company could deliver a superior system for less than 5% of the cost represents an ambitious alternative, one he has promoted before.

In 2013, Musk released the Hyperloop Alpha white paper, describing the concept as the "fifth mode" of transportation. The proposal outlined a roughly $6 billion passenger system capable of speeds up to 760 mph, potentially reducing travel time between San Francisco and Los Angeles to 30 to 35 minutes.

Project of Boring Company

Despite the vision, The Boring Company has limited its operational projects so far. Its most notable project is the Las Vegas Convention Centre Loop, a network of tunnels where Tesla vehicles transport passengers. The system has faced criticism for relatively low passenger capacity and safety. Critics have also pointed out that the Las Vegas system differs significantly from the pressurized pod-in-vacuum-tube design central to the Hyperloop concept.

Musk’s latest comments did not include a timeline, funding details, or updated technical specifications for a San Francisco-to-Los Angeles Hyperloop system.