Chicago voters turned back at the ballot box on Tuesday the notion of a third Mayor Daley, and along with former Obama chief of staff William Daley a former police superintendent endorsed by onetime “America’s mayor” Rudy Giuliani also missed the runoff cut, as Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot, who more recently headed the Chicago Police Board, advanced to a second round of voting on April 2.
Another big-name casualty, it seemed, was Tesla’s TSLA, +5.67% Elon Musk.
Musk has pitched, and found an enthusiastic audience in Rahm Emanuel’s City Hall, a billion-dollar scheme to deliver travelers from Chicago’s downtown Loop to O’Hare Airport in 12 minutes as soon as 2022. But neither Preckwinkle nor Lightfoot has expressed interest in the undertaking by Musk’s Boring Co. The former, according to Chicago Tribune reporting, is on record as saying she’d put it on pause. The latter has called it “a fiction” that dual high-speed rail tunnels covering the roughly 15-mile distance between the country’s busiest airport and the central business district can be constructed and put into use without, as the Boring Co. has vowed, government subsidies.
The express train system was to use autonomous pod-like carriages departing as frequently as every half-minute, each carrying up to 16 passengers plus luggage, traveling at speeds exceeding 100 miles an hour.
The passenger fare, according to the company, would be less than half the cost of a taxi ride, which is typically estimated at $40 but can run more or less. The Chicago Transit Authority’s Blue Line train makes the journey in about 40 minutes, with trains departing every three to five minutes during rush periods. The fare is $2.50 ($5 for trips originating at O’Hare).
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