Thousands of CES 2023 attendees tested out the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop tunnel transit system for quick 1.7-mile trips offering them a prelude of more of the efficient tunnels to come.
The service was free during the early January event, offering 115,000 CES attendees a chance to reduce a 45-minute LVCC cross-campus walk time down to 2 minutes, not including short waits for Tesla vehicles with drivers.
“I call shotgun!” one gleeful CES attendee said while waiting in line. Once inside the white Tesla vehicle, the man used his phone to video the entire trip, marking its sudden acceleration to maximum speed in the single lane white tunnel, an experience the design engineer likened to a slick amusement park ride over a tunnel race track.
The LVCC Loop construction was built with the Godot Tunnel Boring Machine at a cost of $47 million for two tunnels and three stations, including one below ground near LVCC North, according to The Boring Company. It first opened in April 2021 for prior events, including CES 2022 when it transported up to 17,000 passengers per day. Figures for CES 2023 ridership were not available, but crowds for the latest CES at 115,000 were about double the prior year, the first after CES closed to in-person crowds in 2021.
The Boring Company, founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has posted ambitious plans for expanding the LVCC Loop across https://www.boringcompany.com/vegas-loop broader Las Vegas and Clark County and eventually to Los Angeles. In October 2021, Clark County commissioners unanimously approved a deal with Boring for the Vegas Loop to build and maintain a system under the Las Vegas Strip to reach Allegiant Stadium (which is across major Interstate-15 from the Strip) and University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Maps of proposed alignments show the tunnels also going from downtown Las Vegas in the north, then directly southward by 6 miles to Allegiant, not including the many branches to resort hotels.
Construction is expected to begin in 2023 on the 29-mile Vegas Loop tunnel network approved by the county in 2021 to ultimately connect 51 stations throughout the resort corridor. In 2022, the city of Las Vegas unanimously approved bringing the Vegas Loop to city limits, which increases the system to 34 miles and 55 stations in all. The dream is for Vegas Loop to eventually connect to Los Angeles, a distance of 270 miles.
Boring has not posted a total cost for the Vegas Loop 34-mile network but it could be in the billions, with costs recouped in transit fares and possibly rights to develop other hotel and commercial properties. The company said it can typically build a tunnel for $10 million a mile, down from industry prices that can range from $100 million a mile to $1 billion a mile, but Boring’s tally does not apparently include the cost of underground stations and other costs.
The current system is a closed system that doesn’t allow private vehicles to enter other than the 4-assigned 4-seater Teslas with their drivers, although “there could be a point where the technology for driverless cars is available and allowed,” said Jennifer Cooper, chief communications and strategy officer for Clark County, via email to Fierce Electronics. “The system could be used by the developer
for their driverless cars. At this time, the developer is developing a vehicle that allows for greater occupancy.” The developer she mentioned is presumably Boring Company and its partners.
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