Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX, is in talks with Mayor Rahm Emanuel about constructing a high-speed underground rail line connecting the city’s downtown area and O’Hare International Airport, according to a report.
Emanuel told the Chicago Tribune he plans to have Musk’s team come to Chicago to see if digging the rail line makes more sense than other alternatives—like an existing railroad right-of-way.
The newspaper says Emanuel sees the train as appealing to business travelers who would appreciate a “European-style fast train” to zip them from the airport to downtown.
Details on funding are scarce, the Tribune reports, but Emanuel’s administration hired former federal transportation official Bob Rivkin last February to provide legal expertise to work with partners in the endeavor.
Emanuel told reporters Monday that he’d been in contact with Musk. The mayor said he’d sent representatives to look at Musk’s “tunnel digger” to see if it could be part of the rail line project.
“They are very interested, and we’re going to have them now out to the city to explore further what we are doing and planning,” Emanuel said.
It is unclear how long the project could take or how much it would cost.
