Has NoMa been chosen for a D.C. hyperloop station?

Since October 2017, Elon Musk’s Boring Company has been approved to dig a tunnel between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., which will allow for the high-speed transportation system, known as the hyperloop. So far, approximately 10 miles under the state-owned portion of MD 295, near Fort Meade, in Anne Arundel County, have been approved by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan for a tunnel, but it’s still unclear as to where the rest of the route will be located. Recently, Curbed DC discovered an application for a construction staging area by the Boring Company in the D.C. Transportation Online Permitting System (TOPS). The construction staging area would be located at 53 New York Avenue NE in D.C.’s NoMa neighborhood.

The purpose of a construction staging area is to store construction-related equipment and materials, such as vehicles. Is this the precursor for a hyperloop station in D.C.? Curbed DC reached out to the Boring Company to find out.

A Boring Company spokesman said, “The Boring Company is working with federal, state, and local officials on constructing a high speed transportation system from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, which would then be extended to New York. Stations in a Loop or hyperloop system are small in size and widely distributed in a network—very different from large station termini considered for train systems. In Washington, D.C., a New York Avenue location, if constructed, could become a station in this network.”

If the hyperloop is approved and constructed, a trip from D.C. to New York would take under 30 minutes. Already, the Boring Company has begun work on a 2-mile-long hyperloop tunnel in Hawthorne, California, from SpaceX’s Los Angeles headquarters toward LAX airport. The project is being privately funded and will use no state or federal dollars.

• Elon Musk’s East Coast Hyperloop approved for construction in Maryland [Curbed DC]