New York officials reportedly approached Elon Musk about building a tunnel to JFK airport
- New York City officials held preliminary talks with Elon Musk about a Boring Company tunnel to connect Manhattan to JFK airport, Bloomberg News reported Thursday.
- The plan was eventually scrapped, the Boring Company confirmed to Bloomberg.
- A "one-seat" ride to JFK, the city's main airport, has been discussed for decades but has never been built.
Tesla and Boring Company CEO Elon Musk spoke to New York City officials about building a tunnel to connect Manhattan with JFK airport, Bloomberg News' Sarah McBride reported Thursday.
However, anonymous sources tell the outlet that the talks were eventually scrapped because of the complexity of tunneling in NYC. A route to JFK would involve crossing the East River and miles of densely built Brooklyn and Queens residential areas.
A Boring Company spokesperson confirmed the talks to Bloomberg - but noted they were preliminary in nature. Their statement, according to Bloomberg:
The Boring Company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
JFK, easily New York City's busiest airport, is located roughly 15 miles from Manhattan's central business district. It's accessible by public transit, but not on a one-seat ride like the Boring Company could theoretically offer. Passengers either take the subway for about an hour, or a commuter rail line, before transferring to an AirTrain to terminals.
A "one-seat" ride to the airport in Queens has been discussed for decades, but has never been proven feasible. The Boring Company maintains that it can build tunnels more cheaply than traditional means by shrinking the boring diameter. It's not clear what kind of vehicles or trains would travel through the JFK tunnel that was discussed.
In November, the Boring Company showed off its first test tunnel near the SpaceX headquarters in California. It's also working to connect Chicago's O'Hare airport to the downtown loop.