Why Musk's Superfast Hyperloop May Arrive Slowly

The numbers are pretty unbelievable -- at a top speed of 760 miles per hour (more than 1,200 kilometers per hour), the so-called hyperloop proposed by entrepreneur Elon Musk could whisk travelers from New York to Washington in 29 minutes, one-fifth the time needed by Acela, Amtrak’s fastest train. Perhaps even more unbelievable was Musk’s tweeted assertion in late July that he had received "verbal government approval” for a hyperloop connecting the two cities. His proposed supertrain might be fast; getting a transformative technology approved and implemented isn’t.

Nothing much, it seems. After his eye-popping tweet, Musk clarified that he was referring only to a conversation with a federal official, whom he didn’t identify. A White House spokesman said the Trump administration has had “promising conversations to date” with Musk and executives of his tunnel-building Boring Co., which he created in 2016. In a followup tweet, Musk said there’s "still a lot of work needed to receive formal approval." That work would likely include years’ worth of applications and paperwork from multiple jurisdictions.