The Federal Railroad Administration, the nation’s railroad agency, has brought in the Boring Company, the tunneling firm founded by Elon Musk, to help with a multibillion-dollar Amtrak project, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
Federal Railroad Administration officials have talked with employees at the Boring Company about assessing the costs and progress of the Frederick Douglass Tunnel program, a new tunnel along a busy Amtrak stretch connecting Baltimore to Washington and Virginia. Amtrak initially expected the development to cost $6 billion, but now estimates it could cost as much as $8.5 billion.
As part of the talks, officials with the Department of Transportation, which oversees the Federal Railroad Administration, met with employees from the Boring Company last month and were told that the firm could find ways to build the tunnel more cheaply and efficiently, according to two of the people familiar with the discussions.
A Transportation Department spokesman, Nathaniel Sizemore, confirmed that the Boring Company was one of several firms being consulted for the purposes of awarding a new engineering contract. He declined to name the other companies.
The talks have raised concerns about Mr. Musk’s conflicts of interests as he juggles his businesses, along with his role as a top adviser to President Trump. Mr. Musk leads or owns at least six companies, including the electric automaker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX. At the same time, he has overseen the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has slashed jobs and resources at federal agencies that regulate his businesses.
The biggest surprise in this article is that Amtrak has not been ordered to rename the Frederick Douglass Tunnel.
I’d be wary of having Musk’s company dig the tunnels for that project. There were some safety-related concerns with their only known project: the Tesla Tunnel in Las Vegas.
The Tesla Tunnels are also noted for lacking common safety features such as emergency exits, emergency walkways, call boxes, etc. - features you find in basically every other tunnel that is built properly. Just look at the profile of those tunnels and the lack of space inside. If there was a fire, you’d be trapped.
Why? Because it’s cheaper.
This company by all means should not be building rail tunnels.
This is the absolute worst idea. Boring Co. made a lot of proposals like this a few years ago, and they all fell apart very quickly after just the slightest bit of scrutiny. Why Amtrak is even wasting time listening to them is beyond me.
The company was ostensibly founded to innovate on tunnel-boring technology. If there were any evidence they had ever done that, it would be great. But they haven’t.
The only thing they’ve built is the Las Vegas tunnels, which are very tiny and built using very conventional means. I’ve used them, actually. They’re horribly inefficient death traps.
The small size of the Vegas tubes is exactly what makes them easy and cheap to dig. Trains need much bigger tunnels. Boring Co. has zero experience with larger tunnels.
Their entire purpose is to prevent proper public transportation systems from being built. The Boring Co. could have built a high-tech driverless metro concept for Las Vegas that could enhance connectivity in an otherwise car-centric city, but Musk’s projects are built to prevent that or waste resources that otherwise would go to common-sense projects that perhaps could create a portfolio for attracting clients. He’s a car salesman first and foremost.
Whether that is the true motivation or not, their actions conspicuously align with that agenda, in surprisingly effective way. Either way, it’s now become major obstacle to effective, common-sense, proven solutions to our transit problems.
It’s almost like our President… is he a Russian asset? Maybe not, but if he’s not, he’s acting EXACTLY like a Russian asset as President would to literally destroy this country from within, and isn’t that just as treasonous? I mean, from crashing the economy to burning bridges with literally all of our allies while cozying up to regimes (Qatar) that he, himself previously labeled as funders of terrorism. WTF?
In an oligarchy, publicly held assets (passenger railroads, natural resources, infrastructure, etc.) are typically sold off at bargain-basement prices to the leadership’s cronies. This is essentially what has transpired in the Russian Federation in the past several decades, and we will soon see it here in the United States with Amtrak and other state holdings. Whether you call it crony capitalism, oligarchy, neo-feudalism, etc. - the results are inevitable and inescapable.
The main difference with Russia is that the leadership of that particular country has created a totalitarian state by exiling, jailing, poisoning and murdering its opponents, such that elections cannot be called free or fair, and it thus doesn’t seem right to blame the Russian populace for the Kremlin’s actions. Anyone trying to change the situation in Russia or even exercise basic civil rights is up against impossible odds. In the United States, however, we have free and fair elections that resulted in oligarchic nihilism. Unlike the Russian people, who should not feel embarrassed or ashamed for an environment that is entirely beyond their control, the American people deserve the world’s condemnation, sanction and isolation for their choices. It’s basically voluntary oligarchy or consensual dictatorship. It boggles the mind, but it’s what the people chose.
What does this have to do with Amtrak? Not much, but don’t be surprised if its assets get stripped down and transferred to the various deathtrap-designing kleptocrats that are close to the White House.
Amtrak’s unreliability (which is about to get a lot worse) can be summarized by the following clever saying: “I used to be swear by Amtrak. Then I swore at Amtrak. And then finally I swore off Amtrak.”
You are right on Waymond. The only thing I would add to your writing is that the Right Wing media is not only complicit but cheering it on with the hopes of being the only state sanctioned media left standing. A major problem when a media outlet is controlled by any one person.