CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A high-tech tunnel that was supposed to whisk airline passengers from O'Hare to downtown in 12 minutes is effectively dead.
Then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel and inventor Elon Musk unveiled the idea last year. Musk's Boring Company was to build the tunnel from O'Hare to Block 37, and high-speed electric sleds would have carried passengers along the 18-mile tunnel.
Musk claimed the project would have cost less than $1 billion.
It appears the super tunnel will not survive the administration change at City Hall. New Aviation Commissioner Jamie Rhee refused to comment on the tunnel project in an interview with Crain's Chicago Business Columnist Greg Hinz.
He told the WBBM Noon Business Hour Thursday that Rhee's reluctance is more proof that the project will not leave the ground.
"For at least time time being you're going to have to take the L or a cab or whatever. Ain't gonna be no scientific ‘maglev’ or zippy train from O'Hare," Hinz said.