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Comment by TheCoelacanth | Hacker News Reader

"Verbal government approval" sounds like bullshit. There have to be at least a dozen different governments that would need to be involved in a project like this: the federal government, DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania, NY state and a bunch of local governments. Who would be able to give verbal approval for all of them?

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You're right, of course, which is probably why he's tweeting about it: once the public is sufficiently hyped about the hyperloop happening, it becomes harder for those governments to say no.

Except for all the lawsuits filed by all the people along the right-of-way.

LA Metro is currently building a subway extension, and Beverly Hills has fought them every step of the way.

You go where people are at least moderately cooperative. If Beverly Hills wants to fight to such an extreme, you avoid their political fiefdom. Simple.

If you know anything about LA geography you realize this is a laughable "solution".

Beverly Hills sits between downtown and the beach areas. It's also a destination for many people who work in the city but can't afford or don't want to live there

This seems to be his strategy exactly, per this tweet:

If you want this to happen fast, please let your local & federal elected representatives know. Makes a big difference if they hear from you. -@elonmusk [1]

[1] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/888053175155949572

Your naiveté regarding transportation infrastructure projects (or hell, any infrastructure project) is endearing.

Please be civil when commenting here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Plus a lot of the train stations are owned by quasi-governmental agencies like the port authority.

Traveling 1 mile under the hudson would involve deals with at least 6 entities: the states of NY and NJ, the port authority, the federal government via amtrak, and the city government of NYC and whichever municipality on the NJ side.

Lets not forget the 123173817381 unions who may or may not have existing contracts or are hoping to gain new ones by this change..

This is never going to fly in New Jersey. Its so damn corrupt, take any cost and multiply by 10 for our section. And add a newark or jersey city station too, you're not going under us without that.

Maybe best to just go around us.

Building inspector walks up to construction foreman overseeing the digging of holes in the ground, pouring concrete, etc.

Inspector: Hi... can I see your permits? I hadn't heard about this.

Foreman: It's OK... we have verbal permission from the zoning board and building commission.

Inspector: Oh, I see, well... carry on!

I think it's fair to say that there is no such thing as "verbal approval" when it comes to any government bureaucracy so empowered to approve/reject any activity. Sure, you might get the verbal commitment of bureaucrats and politicians to oil the wheels and speed things up, or even look the other way... but they can also just be giving you happy talk, too. It don't mean a thing until the right approvals are filed with the right offices, usually on the right forms, with the right seals, and the right signatures.

"Verbal approval" aka "in principle support".

I am not concerned about the surface substance of Elon's message. What I am concerned about is the Boring company having no experience building tunnels yet, having no test track, and having no experience building vehicle elevators.

So many unknowns. The least of their issues right now is permission to start work.

Eric Phillips, the press secretary for New York City's mayor, says "This is news to City Hall.": https://twitter.com/EricFPhillips/status/888081761086955521

My guess is that someone in the government said something along the lines of "I'm pretty sure we'll be able to get this done".

He also later tweeted:

> Still a lot of work needed to receive formal approval, but am optimistic that will occur rapidly

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/888077452265771008

Twitter-speak for some federal-level government spokesperson gave some sort of verbal approval.

Musk is trying to drum up momentum for it. It'd be wrong to think he's gotten anything terribly official done, here.

More likely Trump has said yes, believing he has the authority to do so.

I suspect this is almost literally true. He got positive noises from someone in the administration, and is spinning that as "verbal approval" even though it's next to worthless. I can't imagine what else he could mean.

He may also have preliminary approval from an existing railroad that already owns the right of way. There are a bunch of rights of way in that area already, and since his stuff would go underneath, it wouldn't interfere with the existing track.

Likely that Musk created this tweet to aggregate public enthusiasm for a real HyperLoop.

He will reference it when the lawmakers try to back out, delay, or, otherwise impede the progress of Boring Company.

"Who would be able to give verbal approval for all of them?"

"I've got a pen and a phone." -- Barack Obama

So does Trump.

The ratchet of increasing federal government power only turns one way.

The County of Brushyborough, Delaware, says, "Thumbs up!"

It depends on how deep they can tunnel.

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