Elon Musk says he has verbal approval for an underground NYC-to-DC hyperloop

As organizations like Hyperloop One propose potential routes for their high-tech, high-speed transportation pipelines, Elon Musk's own The Boring Company (yes, it's really called that) looks to have the go-ahead for an experimental track of its own.

The techno-entrepreneur tweeted today that he received "verbal [government] approval" for an underground route connecting New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, DC. It will make the trip to its two ends points – a distance of more than 200 miles – in 29 minutes, Musk claims.

Musk's goal with The Boring Company is to cut travel time, traffic and pollution by combining a complex network of underground tunnels with high-speed "electric skates". These are capable of carrying cars and other vehicles to speeds up to 125mph (about 200km/h) or even over 600mph (about 970km/h) if vacuum-sealed into a Hyperloop pod.

Using special city centers with "up to a dozen or more" access points per city, Musk says passengers using his company's tunnel can get between New York and DC in less than half an hour. (To contrast, it currently takes about 4.5 hours to make the drive.) 

Now, it can't be understated that Musk is speaking about uncited verbal permission he received from unnamed government personnel, so how far along The Boring Company is to making this new plan a reality is uncertain.

(It doesn't help that NYC mayor Bill DeBlasio's press secretary, Eric Phillips, tweeted earlier today claiming that this is the first time City Hall has heard of Musk's proposal.)

As reported by Bloomberg, the verbal approval may have come from the White House, which says it's had "promising conversations to date" with Musk and The Boring Company, but wouldn't go further. 

What's more, according to Engadget, The Boring Company hasn't had any conversations with city officials along the East Coast route Musk named today, but a number are excited about the prospect. 

Musk mentioned last month that he had "promising conversations" with the mayor of Los Angeles for a similar tunnel structure in the city, and today Musk expanded that the first set of tunnels "are to alleviate greater LA urban congestion."

"Will start NY-DC in parallel. Then prob LA-SF and a TX loop," he tweeted, indicating underground tunnels are heading to The Lone Star State, too.

That said, Musk adds in another tweet that while there's still a" lot of work needed" before he gets on-the-record approval to construct his subterranean superhighway, he has high hopes for the underground project.

Michelle Fitzsimmons contributed to this report

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