Sanford Nowlin
Mayor Ron Nirenberg, shown here in a file photo, questioned the need for the pricy San Antonio project proposed by billionaire Elon Musk's Boring Co.
Initiated in 2018, Nirenberg's plan aims to enhance public transportation and accessibility throughout the city. However, Nirenberg told the Business Journal he doesn't see how a tunnel ferrying passengers from the airport to downtown in Teslas fits in with that vision.
"We have a lot of transportation priorities," Nirenberg told SABJ. "We need multimodal connectivity. I don't see where a tunnel project fits into that. I don't know what it accomplishes."
Instead, the mayor wants to focus on VIA Metropolitan Transit's Advanced Rapid Transportation (ART) project. VIA's ART also would transport passengers from the airport to downtown, and could receive $158 million in federal funding if Congress approves the Biden Administration's recommendation to help fund the project, the Business Journal reports.
Unlike VIA's project, the Boring Co.'s tunnel project is under the authority of the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority. According to John Overman, a research scientist at Texas A&M's Transportation Institute, the proposed tunnel project would ultimately be approved by the Texas Transportation Commission, not San Antonio's city government.
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