Elon Musk’s The Boring Co. proposes digging a 2.8-mile underground tunnel linking Rancho Cucamonga with Ontario International Airport as an alternative to extending a light-rail system from Pomona, San Bernardino County transportation officials said.
The sub-surface people-mover project would be the first of its kind in San Bernardino County and could replace stalled plans to construct an above-ground extension of the L Line (formerly Gold Line) light-rail that currently ends in Los Angeles County. Other projects on a preliminary list of alternatives to the L Line include a zero-emission train from a Metrolink Station off the San Bernardino Line or a connection from the Riverside Metrolink Line, which has a stop south of Ontario airport.
At $60 million, the proposed tunnel from Rancho to ONT would cost considerably less than the $1- to $1.5-billion light-rail extension from Pomona and could be built in three to four years rather than the 10 years it would take to bring the L Line to the airport, according to the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority.
Musk’s Hawthorne-based company sent an unsolicited proposal to the SBCTA sometime in April or early May, the agency said. In mid-May, the SBCTA Transit Committee warmly embraced the project. The committee also voted unanimously to place a $3 million study of ONT rail access alternatives on hold, so the staff could flesh out Musk’s proposal and move it forward.
The SBCTA governing board will take up the item at its regular meeting June 3, said Otis Greer, spokesman. The committee will hear more details in August or September.
“This is a really compelling idea that we need to seriously look at,” Ray Wolfe, SBCTA executive director, said at the May 14 committee meeting, the first time Musk’s ONT tunnel system was publicly discussed.
“I am very confident this is something we should do,” Wolfe told the committee, made up of local mayors.
“I absolutely support this,” said Ontario City Councilman Alan Wapner, a committee member who is president of the Ontario International Airport Authority.
Musk, who founded Tesla, the electric car company, and SpaceX, a private space transport company, has said the best way to fight traffic in Southern California is to build 3-D highways that either involve flying cars or layers of underground tunnels used by electric cars that produce zero emissions.
The Boring Company Loop system pic.twitter.com/xVpDHzZKXB
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) December 19, 2018
The proposal for ONT, known as a transportation loop, would involve a narrow tunnel that would transport passengers from the San Bernardino Metrolink train line at a new loop station to be built at the Day Creek flood control channel to Terminal 2 at ONT and back.
Passengers would get into modified Tesla Model X electric vehicles that would drop 35 feet underground into the tunnel. Cars at first would be operated by drivers, but plans are to use autonomous vehicles that can travel at more than 100 mph.
The ride would take about two to three minutes, county officials said.
Wolfe said The Boring Co. would operate the system. Other routes could include boring tunnels under either Archibald Avenue or Haven Avenue, he said. “We are exploring other options to give us easy access to the airport property,” he said.
The capacity of a loop system is 4,000 vehicles/hour at 155 mph, according to The Boring Co. website. This is not to be confused with the Hyperloop, also proposed by Musk, that would move people 600 mph in a vacuum-sealed tube.
In May 2019, Musk’s company took passengers in a modified Tesla through the Hawthorne test tunnel at a maximum speed of 127 mph. The test made good on Musk’s promise of being able to go more than 100 mph, after previous failed attempts.
The ONT proposal has been kept from public view. On May 13, Wolfe met with Steve Davis, president of The Boring Co., he told the SBCTA committee. The agency declined to release the proposal to the public because it contains proprietary information, Greer said.
The Boring Co., on the day of the SBCTA commitee meeting, had successfully completed the second of two underground tunnels as part of a $52.5-million people-mover project that would connect exhibit halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
No matter the barrier, Vegas doesn’t stop. This morning, excavation was completed on the final tunnel of Elon Musk’s innovative underground transportation system beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center. The project is scheduled to debut in January 2021. #VegasMeansBusiness pic.twitter.com/HX9pSISP4w
— Vegas Means Business (@LVCVA) May 14, 2020
In addition, a Dugout Loop project for Los Angeles would move people in a similar underground loop to Dodger Stadium from Los Feliz, East Hollywood or Rampart Village neighborhoods, according to the company’s website. That project is under environmental review, said Carrie Schindler, SBCTA director of transit and rail.
The Boring Co. was introduced to the SBCTA by San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors Chairman Curt Hagman, who explained the concept to SBCTA committee members after he had visited a company test site in Adelanto.
“They are the leading edge in underground technologies. They are very rapid and very inexpensive compared to other routes,” he said. “I think it is very exciting for us.”
