Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday that he has received verbal approval from the “government” to build a “Hyperloop” connecting New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Musk said a trip between New York and Washington, D.C., which now takes roughly three hours by train, would last only 29 minutes.
{mosads}Musk didn’t specify which government agency gave him the verbal approval.
In a subsequent tweet, Musk said there is still “a lot of work” needed for “formal approval,” but was optimistic it would happen “rapidly.”
A White House spokesperson said that the administration has had favorable conversations with the tech billionaire, but declined to say if he had been granted any approval.
“We have had promising conversations to date, are committed to transformative infrastructure projects, and believe our greatest solutions have often come from the ingenuity and drive of the private sector,” the spokesperson said.
The Department of Transportation did not immediately return The Hill’s request for comment.
Musk’s SpaceX, which notes that it is not affiliated with any Hyperloop companies, although it has hosted Hyperloop competitions, referred The Hill to the Boring Company.
That company, which was born out of Musk’s frustration with traffic, aims to create tunnels to reduce car congestion. On its website, the Boring Company says that such tunnels “would also make Hyperloop adoption viable.”
The Boring Company did not immediately return The Hill’s request for comment.
Musk first released a white paper for the Hyperloop project in 2013, saying at the time that he was too busy between his work at Tesla and SpaceX to take on the project himself. The white paper has spawned other Hyperloop companies not affiliated with Musk, such as Hyperloop One.
–This report was last updated at 1:54 p.m.