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  #7241  
Old Posted Nov 11, 2020, 1:40 PM
We vs us We vs us is offline
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Originally Posted by H2O View Post
I think it is more likely that they are planning a tunnel from the factory site to a railroad loading yard somewhere.
I’ve been thinking this, too. TBC could be here to bore relatively short tunnels in and around the overall facility, but I feel like that’s unimpressive small caliber stuff that they wouldn’t spend their time on. But making a much longer tunnel to connect their stock to a rail hub (maybe in Hutto?) might make more sense. You could trickle out cars one at a time on a 24 hour basis and maybe hit a useful pace of transfer.

Still not sure if that matches what fully loaded surface fleet could do... but maybe the numbers work...?

The Biz Dev position, though, seems to be the tell. They’re looking to sell someone, for sure.
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  #7242  
Old Posted Nov 11, 2020, 3:05 PM
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Originally Posted by We vs us View Post
I’ve been thinking this, too. TBC could be here to bore relatively short tunnels in and around the overall facility, but I feel like that’s unimpressive small caliber stuff that they wouldn’t spend their time on. But making a much longer tunnel to connect their stock to a rail hub (maybe in Hutto?) might make more sense. You could trickle out cars one at a time on a 24 hour basis and maybe hit a useful pace of transfer.

Still not sure if that matches what fully loaded surface fleet could do... but maybe the numbers work...?

The Biz Dev position, though, seems to be the tell. They’re looking to sell someone, for sure.
That makes a lot of sense. On top of that, I can see them doing one or two tunnels for the luxury elite in Austin. Perhaps Clarksville or Travis Heights to .....somewhere of interest.
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  #7243  
Old Posted Nov 11, 2020, 4:12 PM
atxsnail atxsnail is offline
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Originally Posted by We vs us View Post
The Biz Dev position, though, seems to be the tell. They’re looking to sell someone, for sure.
Maybe we can convince them to do a demonstration project to bury the Red Line under Lamar. That's basically the only thing I'd trust them for - a short small tunnel with daylight visible from both sides and no need for emergency exits/ventilation. Luckily I think most of our local elected officials would be pretty skeptical of anything from TBC for public works.

State officials, however...
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  #7244  
Old Posted Nov 11, 2020, 4:44 PM
ATX2030 ATX2030 is offline
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Originally Posted by We vs us View Post
I’ve been thinking this, too. TBC could be here to bore relatively short tunnels in and around the overall facility, but I feel like that’s unimpressive small caliber stuff that they wouldn’t spend their time on. But making a much longer tunnel to connect their stock to a rail hub (maybe in Hutto?) might make more sense. You could trickle out cars one at a time on a 24 hour basis and maybe hit a useful pace of transfer.

Still not sure if that matches what fully loaded surface fleet could do... but maybe the numbers work...?

The Biz Dev position, though, seems to be the tell. They’re looking to sell someone, for sure.
I was thinking the same thing. No telling what Elon has in mind. When you have that much money anything is possible. The interesting thing is that Tesla could have multiple locations in central Texas connected by tunnel.

TBC, Project Connect and the expansion of 35 thru DT. Austin will be one huge transit construction project for the next 10 years. Hopefully the airport expansion will get going during that time as well.
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  #7245  
Old Posted Nov 11, 2020, 4:56 PM
freerover freerover is offline
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Originally Posted by atxsnail View Post
Maybe we can convince them to do a demonstration project to bury the Red Line under Lamar. That's basically the only thing I'd trust them for - a short small tunnel with daylight visible from both sides and no need for emergency exits/ventilation. Luckily I think most of our local elected officials would be pretty skeptical of anything from TBC for public works.

State officials, however...
The red line train can't fit in their tunnels.
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  #7246  
Old Posted Nov 11, 2020, 5:05 PM
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The Statesman article on this notes that

Quote:
[The Boring Company makes a number of product lines based around tunneling, designed for a range of uses by utilities, pedestrians, freight and its “loop” service where passengers are transported between stations with autonomous vehicles at up to 150 miles per hour.
Honestly, I thought they only did his loop thingy, so maybe they're starting to settle down and work on building a pipeline of smaller jobs for utilities and the like.

Anyhoo, sorry for the derail but the tea leaves on this are pretty interesting.

https://www.statesman.com/business/2...-eyeing-austin
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  #7247  
Old Posted Nov 11, 2020, 5:15 PM
atxsnail atxsnail is offline
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Originally Posted by freerover View Post
The red line train can't fit in their tunnels.
Mine was a sarcastic comment though it may not have been clear
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  #7248  
Old Posted Nov 11, 2020, 8:21 PM
freerover freerover is offline
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Back to actual transportation plans:

I realized the tunnel for the blue line might help get the station closer to Rainey. They can try to have it come ashore at Bierce with a station right in front of MACC and then go under Red River to 4th St instead of Trinity. Would it be a regulatory issue if the blue line was tunneling under the red line track and station? Also, I assume they are going to do twin tunnels so I guess they wouldn't both have to take the same route if it helped angling to reduce the sharpness of turns.

Last edited by freerover; Nov 11, 2020 at 10:47 PM.
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  #7249  
Old Posted Nov 11, 2020, 10:43 PM
freerover freerover is offline
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Originally Posted by atxsnail View Post
Mine was a sarcastic comment though it may not have been clear
Sorry. It was hard to tell.


To give you guys an idea, light rail needs tunnels with a diameter of 18' for a single track and the whole point of Boring is that they only make 12' tunnels no matter the project. They're cheap because the only thing they are good for is an underground taxi service which can't scale without creating the need for more parallel tunnels exactly like a highway. Sure, the AI may be more efficient but merging still creates congestion and you can't algorithm your way out of simple physics. The system (be design) has to have a cap on users per minute to function and the easiest way to do that is by a high enough price to keep enough people away or a variable model like the Mopac toll lane.

Taxis and Ride Share might technically be mass transit but they can't move a large amount of people in a city.
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  #7250  
Old Posted Nov 12, 2020, 2:28 PM
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I guess if the tunnels can find a way from the MACC to Cesar and Trinity then you could cut and cap along the convention center instead of going full tunnel to save money. I'm guessing the new pedestrian plaza on 4th between the redline station and trinity could be dug up and caped as well for a station. Same thing with republic park. Man I can't wait for the technical side of this to really get going.

What if battery tech along with charging in the tunnel, at stations and maybe for 15 minutes at each end of the line means you don't need power along the tracks? Would that make it drastically easier/cheaper to build our the system?
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  #7251  
Old Posted Nov 12, 2020, 3:23 PM
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Originally Posted by freerover View Post
Man I can't wait for the technical side of this to really get going.
I'm the same way - I geek out when the schematics and technical designs come out.
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  #7252  
Old Posted Nov 12, 2020, 3:31 PM
freerover freerover is offline
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I'm the same way - I geek out when the schematics and technical designs come out.
Yea the next 6 months is going to be a lot of bureaucracy getting the ATP up and running.
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  #7253  
Old Posted Nov 12, 2020, 4:58 PM
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I'm being lazy.... how many stations with be underground downtown? Just one? Man, LOOK AT WHAT I JUST TYPED!!! AN UNDERGROUND LINE IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING. ::adds "it's happening" gif::
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  #7254  
Old Posted Nov 12, 2020, 5:10 PM
freerover freerover is offline
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Originally Posted by ahealy View Post
I'm being lazy.... how many stations with be underground downtown? Just one? Man, LOOK AT WHAT I JUST TYPED!!! AN UNDERGROUND LINE IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING. ::adds "it's happening" gif::
At least 2 stations underground: Republic Square and Convention Center. I assume MACC/Rainey and woodridge square would both be at grade.

If the gold line LRT ever goes in and the subway is expanded then the 6-7th street stop will def be underground. If Seattle is the model then we are looking at 2 of these 18' tunnels:

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  #7255  
Old Posted Nov 12, 2020, 7:02 PM
atxsnail atxsnail is offline
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Originally Posted by ahealy View Post
I'm being lazy.... how many stations with be underground downtown? Just one? Man, LOOK AT WHAT I JUST TYPED!!! AN UNDERGROUND LINE IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING. ::adds "it's happening" gif::
Many years ago I used to tell people that the staircase outside the downtown Omni was the subway station entrance. It's the little laughs that make life enjoyable
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  #7256  
Old Posted Nov 12, 2020, 7:24 PM
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Originally Posted by atxsnail View Post
Many years ago I used to tell people that the staircase outside the downtown Omni was the subway station entrance. It's the little laughs that make life enjoyable
I've never noticed that. Parking garage?
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  #7257  
Old Posted Nov 12, 2020, 10:10 PM
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ahealy ahealy is offline
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Originally Posted by atxsnail View Post
Many years ago I used to tell people that the staircase outside the downtown Omni was the subway station entrance. It's the little laughs that make life enjoyable
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA

I've totally done that before Doesn't it lead to absolutely nothing? Like a little door?
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  #7258  
Old Posted Nov 13, 2020, 12:07 AM
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Hopefully Capital Metro puts in some thought for the future ridership where in Boston the metro gets overcrowded with many unable to get on the trains. This happened to me in trying to get to Fenway Park and resorted to use Uber. Have refections on when SH 130 was built where people said no one would use it but years later its congested and now adding a third lane.

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  #7259  
Old Posted Nov 13, 2020, 12:09 AM
freerover freerover is offline
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Originally Posted by SproutingTowers View Post
Hopefully Capital Metro puts in some thought for the future ridership where in Boston the metro gets overcrowded with many unable to get on the trains. This happened to me in trying to get to Fenway Park and resorted to use Uber. Have refections on when SH 130 was built where people said no one would use it but years later its congested and now adding a third lane.

That's one of the main reasons for the tunnel. It will allow them to run longer trains in the future which they can't do at grade because they would block multiple downtown intersections at stops.
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  #7260  
Old Posted Nov 13, 2020, 9:28 AM
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Lightbulb

Sorry, duplicate post.
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