The Boring Company has been selected by the City of Chicago to design, build, finance, operate and maintain an O’Hare Express service via hyperloop.
The Chicago Express Loop will provide public transportation between O’Hare Airport and Block 37 in downtown Chicago. The hyperloop will be a high-speed underground system in which passengers are transported on autonomous electric skates traveling at 125 to 150 miles per hour. The passenger cars will carry between eight and 16 passengers, The Boring Company said.
The Boring Company’s electric skates are vehicles built on a modified Tesla Motors Model X chassis. The all-electric, battery-powered, zero-emission skates have an NHTSA 5-star safety rating and will be mechanically confined to a concrete track within the tunnel and will operate under safety approvals issued by both federal and state agencies. The electric skate’s cabins will be climate controlled, feature luggage storage space and Wi-Fi.
The company said the tunnel system is beneficial because there is no surface noise or vibration and tunnel construction will be silent, invisible and imperceptible at the surface. Construction and operation of the tunnels will not require public surface right-of-way and since the public transportation will be underground, it will be unaffected by weather.
Once completed, a trip from O’Hare to downtown will take an average of 12 minutes, which is three to four times faster than existing transportation systems. The hyperloop will operate 20 hours a day with electric skates leaving the station as frequently as every 30 seconds, the company said.
The Boring Company will privately fund the project.
