Elon Musk appears open to the idea of digging mass transit tunnels under San Francisco and the bay, as suggested by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.
"We need rapid transportation from Downtown to the Ocean, Marin Country, East Bay, San Jose, & LA. Bullet train too far away! Can you do it?" Benioff tweeted at Musk on Tuesday. The idea drew a swift response from Musk, the CEO of the Boring Company.
"Sure, we can do it," Musk tweeted Tuesday in response to Benioff's question.
Sure, we can do it
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2018
But if you live in the Bay Area, don't hold your breath for a BART competitor pulling in to the station anytime soon.
Apparently when Musk used the word "can" in his tweet, he meant his tunnel-building company was "capable" of the project, a Boring Company spokesperson told Bloomberg.
"We are going to explore tunnels everywhere we can, including San Francisco," the spokesman said.
Boring Company representatives didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk, the brains behind SpaceX and Tesla, created Boring to build transport tunnels as an alternative means of transportation and a way to alleviate traffic congestion. Boring has already been awarded a contract to build a high-speed express system for Chicago that will whisk passengers between the downtown and the city's O'Hare International Airport in mere minutes.
Musk's Boring Company is also digging the first tunnel in a high-speed, underground traffic shortcut for Los Angeles. The tunnel, which lies beneath the Hawthorne, California, headquarters of SpaceX is expected to run for 2 miles when completed.
Musk tweeted Saturday he had taken a walk along the "disturbingly long" tunnel and assured his Twitter followers that the project was on track to open on Dec. 10.
The San Francisco Bay Area already has a handful of mass transit systems. Bay Area Rapid Transit has been serving San Francisco, the East Bay and the peninsula for decades, as has the more local San Francisco Muni. BART is in the process of extending its East Bay line to San Jose, which is also served by VTA light rail.
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Discuss: Musk says 'We can do it' in response to Benioff query on SF transit tunnels
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