Elon Musk posted a concise but sweeping reminder of The Boring Company's long-term roadmap on Friday: solve traffic inside cities first, then build Hyperloop to connect them. It's a two-phase vision that's been years in the making — and the first phase is already generating real ridership numbers.
Where the Loop System Stands Today
The Boring Company's proof-of-concept has always been Las Vegas. The original Las Vegas Convention Center Loop — a 1.7-mile, three-station system built for roughly $47 million — opened in April 2021 and has since been expanded to 2.1 miles and five stations. According to The Boring Company, the LVCC Loop has transported over 3 million passengers and demonstrated a peak throughput of more than 4,500 passengers per hour. What used to be a 45-minute cross-campus walk now takes about 2 minutes.
The broader Vegas Loop is the more ambitious bet. Clark County and the City of Las Vegas have approved 68 miles of tunnel and 104 stations — a network designed to handle up to 90,000 passengers per hour at full build-out. The system already has 11 stations operational and has moved over 4 million passengers total, with fares projected at $5 to $12 and transit times between key destinations estimated at 2 to 8 minutes. Loop vehicles are capable of traveling up to 150 mph in tunnel.
Expansion Beyond Nevada
Las Vegas is no longer the only city on the map. The Music City Loop in Nashville is currently under construction, with tunnel boring expected to begin in Q4 2025 and a target operational date in the first half of 2027. In Dubai, The Boring Company has a construction contract with the Roads and Transport Authority for a pilot system covering 6.4 km of tunnel and four stations — construction begins in late 2026, with a projected launch by 2027. That Dubai pilot is expected to cut travel time between DIFC and Dubai Mall from 20 minutes to 3 minutes and serve 13,000 passengers per day.
In March 2026, The Boring Company announced it would fully fund and build three additional free underground Loop tunnels through its Tunnel Vision Challenge, selecting New Orleans, Baltimore, and Dallas as recipients. The move signals a shift toward self-funded municipal projects — a strategy that lowers the barrier for cities hesitant to commit public money to unproven infrastructure.
The Hyperloop: Still Phase Two
Musk's tweet frames Hyperloop as the eventual destination, not the current priority. The concept — high-speed transit between city centers at speeds that could make a 350-mile trip feel closer to a short commute — remains in the long-range category. The Loop system is explicitly the foundation: demonstrate that underground transit is safe, scalable, and operationally viable at the city level before attempting the far more complex engineering challenge of inter-city vacuum-tube transit.
That sequencing matters. The LVCC Loop's DHS security rating and its ridership milestones are the kind of institutional credibility that a future Hyperloop permitting process will likely require. Building the regulatory and public trust track record now is part of the strategy, even if Hyperloop itself remains years away from groundbreaking.
For now, the near-term story is Loop expansion — more cities, more stations, and the ongoing effort to prove that tunneling costs can come down far enough to make underground transit economically competitive with surface alternatives. Whether Hyperloop follows in five years or fifteen will depend largely on how that cost curve moves.
David covers the EV industry, regulatory developments, and accessory ecosystem. 15+ years writing about consumer tech. Based in London.
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