{"id":216035,"date":"2025-05-13T13:25:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T03:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=216035"},"modified":"2026-02-10T12:29:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:29:20","slug":"elon-musks-boring-company-is-in-talks-with-government-over-amtrak-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=216035","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s Boring Company Is in Talks With Government Over Amtrak Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Federal Railroad Administration, the nation\u2019s railroad agency, has brought in the Boring Company, the tunneling firm founded by Elon Musk<\/a>, to see if it could help with a multibillion-dollar Amtrak project, according to three people familiar with the discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal Railroad Administration officials have talked with employees at the Boring Company about assessing the costs and progress of the Frederick Douglass Tunnel program, a new tunnel<\/a>along a busy Amtrak stretch connecting Baltimore to Washington and Virginia. Amtrak initially expected the development to cost $6 billion, but now estimates it could cost as much as $8.5 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the talks, officials with the Department of Transportation, which oversees the Federal Railroad Administration, met with employees from the Boring Company last month and were told that the firm could find ways to build the tunnel more cheaply and efficiently, according to two of the people familiar with the discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Transportation Department spokesman, Nathaniel Sizemore, confirmed that the Boring Company was one of several firms being consulted for the purposes of awarding a new engineering contract. He declined to name the other companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo decision has been made on bids,\u201d Mr. Sizemore said, \u201cand Amtrak in coordination with D.O.T. will follow standard procedures for bidding out contracting and subcontracting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The talks have raised concerns about Mr. Musk\u2019s conflicts of interests as he juggles his businesses, along with his role as a top adviser to President Trump. Mr. Musk leads or owns at least six companies, including the electric automaker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX. At the same time, he has overseen the so-called Department of Government Efficiency<\/a>, which has slashed jobs and resources at federal agencies that regulate his businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Mr. Musk has overseen the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has slashed jobs and resources at federal agencies that regulate his businesses.Credit…Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In at least a few instances, the conflicts of interest have become public. Mr. Trump hawked Tesla cars<\/a> from the White House lawn in March, while federal agencies have pushed for the wider use of SpaceX\u2019s Starlink satellite internet service<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, amid concerns from investors that he was neglecting his work at Tesla, Mr. Musk said he would pare back the time he spent<\/a> cost-cutting in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Transportation said in a statement that the estimated price for the tunnel had increased by $2.5 billion, and that Amtrak had not yet found ways to reduce costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe department has had conversations with many stakeholders in the infrastructure-engineering space to understand opportunities to get this project back on track,\u201d Mr. Sizemore said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amtrak did not have immediate comment. The Boring Company and Mr. Musk did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n

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President Joseph R. Biden Jr. delivered remarks at the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel in 2023.Credit…Tom Brenner for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Frederick Douglass Tunnel is set to replace the 152-year-old Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, a 1.4-mile route along Amtrak\u2019s Northeast Corridor. It is the \u201csingle largest infrastructure effort\u201d led by Amtrak, according to a report<\/a> last year by Amtrak\u2019s inspector general office, which also expressed concerns over ballooning costs and missed deadlines. The tunnel was expected to be completed by 2035.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Amtrak selected<\/a> a joint venture between two construction companies, Kiewit and J.F. Shea, to build the tunnel. The firms did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously, Republicans including Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and the current vice president, JD Vance, criticized<\/a> the awarding of federal funds to the project for \u201cfavoring Northeastern states over the rest of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York Times<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Federal Railroad Administration has brought in the tunneling company to see if it could help with a multibillion-dollar rail project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":216036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1304,35,2845,47],"tags":[16693,11],"class_list":["post-216035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amtrak","category-breaking-news","category-elon-musk","category-rail-news","tag-the-boring-company","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=216035"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216040,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216035\/revisions\/216040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/216036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=216035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=216035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=216035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}