Billionaires Elon Musk and Mike Cannon-Brookes weigh in on NSW election over Blue Mountains tunnel
The NSW government has dismissed tech billionaire Elon Musk’s price tag of $1 billion for a super high speed tunnel to be built through the Blue Mountains and estimates the real cost to be three times higher.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s price tag of $1 billion for a super high speed tunnel to be built through the Blue Mountains has been dismissed by the state government which estimates the real cost to be three times higher.
Transport for NSW has conducted “high-level analysis” of costings which they say shows the project couldn’t be delivered in Australia for $1B and would actually cost $3B.
“The likely construction cost of a tunnel similar to Mr Musk’s tunnel in LA, which we believe is what he used as comparison, is three times the amount reported in the media,” a Transport for NSW spokeswoman said.
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Transport Minister Andrew Constance said he welcomed Musk’s “ideas and input” but his proposal wasn’t grounded in “reality”.
“The US Administration take very seriously the initiative and ideas of Elon Musk, and I absolutely love his vision. He’s one of the great minds on the planet and we are very happy to look at ways which we can take his aspirations and work with him to achieve these goals,” he said.
“If there’s any unsolicited proposals we will absolutely take it very seriously, but at the moment what is being looked at from his perspective isn’t a reality at this time.”
Mr Constance said the Hyperloop project being developed by Musk, which straps cars into a device and propelled forward at speeds of about 500km/h, was an innovation that could be part of the transport network but not for “years to come”.
“I have to recognise what the US administration is doing in terms of taking very seriously any of his initiatives and at the same time we are very happy for him to look at Australia as a great place to put his ideas and his input.”
Transport for NSW said they would only build a tunnel that would be open to rail and road — not just one or the other as Musk’s radical plan seems to cover.
The cost of building a road and rail tunnel through the Blue Mountains would be about $6 billion, the Transport for NSW spokeswoman said.
The government figures are in Australian dollars but it’s unclear if Musk’s pricing was in US or Australian dollars.
“There are many factors that drive cost, including the number of machines used, depth of digging and ground conditions. Key issues that do not appear to be considered in Mr Musk’s proposed tunnel, which have been factored into our cost estimates, include ventilation and emergency exit,” the Transport for NSW spokeswoman said.
“ Other key issues include geotechnical conditions and integration with the wider transport network, given this appears to be a fully independent/bespoke transport mode.”
“ Any decision about constructing a tunnel through the Blue Mountains would be subject to heritage laws and Australian road safety standard.”
Musk weighed in on the idea when former Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham tweeted at the innovator asking how much it could cost “build a 50km tunnel through the Blue Mountains and open up the west of our State?”.
“About $15M/km for a two way high speed transit, so probably around $750M plus maybe $50M/station,” he wrote.
Also tagged in the Twitter exchange was Australian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, who runs software company Atlassian, who also endorsed the idea.
“Sounds like a bargain for Sydney,” he wrote.
Mr Buckingham replied to Musk and said he’d continue to push the idea and come back to him.
“Thanks mate. Sounds like a bargain. Could be a game changer to go under the Blue Mountains with a modern link between Sydney and thee west. I’ll raise it with the Premier … other colleagues, the community, and get back to you.”
Mr Buckingham told The Daily Telegraph he was shocked when the technology entrepreneur replied to his tweet.
“I was shocked and pleased he was taking the question seriously it’s a legitimate transport option that’s been ignored in NSW for too long because it’s dealing with western NSW which people ignore,” he said.
“So I’ll be running (in the election) on the issue, I think it’s feasible and it’s something that we should at least investigate and if Elon Musk can do it for a billion dollars than it could be an infrastructure and planning game changer in Sydney.”
Mr Buckingham proposes the tunnel start near Penrith and end at Lithgow.
While the plan is ambitious, it has been backed by NSW Farmers Association which said they were “delighted” with the idea of building a tunnel to connect western Sydney with the Central West of NSW.
“Good on Jeremy Buckingham for tweeting Elon Musk about our proposed tunnel. It’s time the NSW Government made it a priority to look beyond the Great Dividing Range and see the enormous economic opportunity the tunnel would have for regional NSW and Western Sydney,” Association President James Jackson said.
In 2017 Musk’s Tesla company took up the challenge to help South Australia’s struggling power network and successfully built the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery.
The following year Musk was condemned worldwide for tweeting that one of the men involved in the rescue of the soccer team trapped in the Thai cave was a “pedo”.
He later apologised.
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