Elon Musk’s Boring Company pitches high-speed tunnel to Dodger Stadium

First an aerial tram, now an underground, high-speed transit line—that’s the latest proposal for a creative new way to get to Dodger Stadium, and it comes from Elon Musk.

The entrepreneur’s Hawthorne-based company, the Boring Company, announced Wednesday night that it wants to build a subway-like line from Los Feliz or East Hollywood that would ferry Dodger fans to the ballpark in about 4 minutes and at the cost of about $1.

Mayor Eric Garcetti quickly published a Tweet welcoming the idea.

“It’s always exciting to see innovative ideas like the proposed Dugout Loop to Dodgers Stadium that could help ease congestion on our roads and make our most iconic destinations more accessible to everyone,” he wrote.

The mayor’s spokesperson, Alex Comisar, says the Boring Company submitted its proposal to the city on Wednesday. The plan will have to undergo state environmental review, and a public meeting scheduled for August 28 will kick off that process.

It’s an ambitious proposal, but, if ultimately built, the “Dugout Loop” would provide Angelenos with the quickest route to the stadium, which is nestled above the city in a ravine, making it somewhat difficult to access.

A free shuttle operated by Metro, the region’s public transportation agency, provides one of the best routes into the ballpark, but it only departs from Union Station and the trip takes about 25 minutes.

The company plans to use its “loop” machines and technology to build the line. The concept involves transporting passengers in electric-powered, autonomous pods (what the company calls “skates”) that zip through underground tunnels at speeds of 125 to 150 miles per hour.

The “skates” would carry between eight and 16 passengers (far fewer than a subway car) and would be lowered underground from street-level docking stations called “Loop lifts.”

The system is being tested right now in Hawthorne, and Musk has proposed a large Loop network that would run beneath a wide swath of Los Angeles. A stop at Dodger Stadium was already planned as part of that system, but plans for the Dugout Loop were submitted to the city as a standalone project and will be reviewed separately.

Via the Boring Company

For the Dodger Stadium project, the company proposes a single underground tunnel that runs for about 3.5 miles with an eastern terminus at the stadium’s parking lot and a western terminus near one of three Metro Red Line stations, either Vermont Avenue and Sunset in Los Feliz, Vermont and Santa Monica Boulevard in East Hollywood, or Vermont and Beverly Boulevard on the border of Rampart Village.

The majority of the line would run beneath Sunset Boulevard, through Silver Lake and Echo Park.

In a statement, the Dodgers’ owners said they support the proposal.

“We were excited when the Boring Company came to us with this project. Whether it is flying overhead in an aerial transit system or bypassing traffic through an underground tunnel, we are always looking for innovative ways to make it easier for Dodgers fans to get to a game,” said CFO Tucker Kain.

• 5 ideas to make it easier to get to Dodger Stadium—that aren’t Elon Musk’s tunnel [Curbed LA]
• Aerial tram proposed for Dodger Stadium [Curbed LA]
• This map shows where Elon Musk is planning to build an extensive tunnel system beneath LA [Curbed LA]