companies
"Permits Were Impossible to Get." The 2017 East Coast Tunnel Was a Post.
On October 19, 2026, Mr. Musk replied that permits were impossible to get. His July 20, 2017 post said he had verbal government approval for a New York–Washington tunnel. The Guardian reported that city and state spokespeople said they had not given it.
Topics: companies
On October 19, 2026, Mr. Musk answered a two-word question about a 2017 tunnel announcement with one sentence: permits were impossible to get. The 2017 post is his claim of “verbal govt approval.” It is not a permit.
The operating system is Vegas Loop. The company hub is The Boring Company.
Confirmed
The October 19 reply
At 08:43:25 UTC on October 19, 2026, @elonmusk replied to @cybrtrkguy:
@cybrtrkguy Permits were impossible to get
The parent post, at 20:56:00 UTC on October 18 (status 2111924280187671028), is the two words “What happened.” fxtwitter names the account The Cybertruck Guy. That post quote-posts Mr. Musk’s July 20, 2017 sentence.
Label: Primary for the words in the reply. The reply does not name an agency, a docket, a city, or a date of a denial. “Were impossible” is his account of why the plan did not proceed.
A direct fetch of x.com returned 403. The posts were read through api.fxtwitter.com. The text above matches the text fxtwitter returned.
The July 20, 2017 post
At 15:09:10 UTC on July 20, 2017 (status 888053175155949572):
Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins.
Label: Primary for that sentence. “Verbal govt approval” is his phrase. The post, as fxtwitter returned it, does not name the official, the agency, or a written approval. “29 mins” is in the post. It is not a timetable from a transit agency.
15:09 UTC is 11:09 a.m. Eastern on that Thursday. That conversion is this desk’s. The timestamp on the post is the fact.
The Guardian (Julia Carrie Wong and Sam Levin, July 20, 2017, 16:07 EDT, last modified 17:44 EDT) prints a longer quotation. After the sentence above, and after an ellipsis, it continues: “City center to city center in each case, with up to a dozen or more entry/exit elevators in each city.” Label: The Guardian’s quotation. The status this desk opened does not contain the elevator sentence. A second status ID for that continuation was not retrieved.
The walk-back, as the Guardian quotes it
The same Guardian story says he walked the claim back about 90 minutes later:
Still a lot of work needed to receive formal approval, but am optimistic that will occur rapidly.
Label: The Guardian’s quotation of a same-day post. “About 90 minutes later” is the Guardian’s timing. The status ID of that walk-back was not retrieved. “Formal approval” is the phrase the Guardian quotes him using for what he did not yet have. “Am optimistic” is his forecast in that quotation, not an approval.
What the cities and states told the Guardian
The Guardian reported that spokespeople for the governments along the route said they had not given the approval in the post.
| Who the Guardian names | What the Guardian says they said |
|---|---|
| A spokesman, Maryland department of transportation | “Who gave him permission to do that?” |
| Mike Dunn, Philadelphia | “Elon Musk has had no contact with Philadelphia officials on this matter,” and “We do not know what he means when he says he received ‘verbal government approval’.” |
| A spokesperson, Pennsylvania | Neither the governor nor the state’s department of transportation had been contacted by Mr. Musk or his company. This sentence is the Guardian’s paraphrase. |
| Ben Sarle, New York City mayor’s office | “Nobody in City Hall, or any of our city agencies, has heard from Mr Musk or any representatives of his company.” |
| Jennifer Post, New York State department of transportation | “The New York state department of transportation did not give verbal approval for a hyperloop.” |
| Anthony McCarthy, spokesman for Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh | “Mr Musk’s announcement on Twitter was the first that the city heard of the Hyperloop project.” |
| LaToya Foster, spokeswoman for Washington mayor Muriel Bowser | “This is the first we heard of it. We can’t wait to hear more.” |
The Guardian also says Pugh’s statement called her “excited” about the idea if it became real. The words after “excited” in that story are the Guardian’s paraphrase of her statement. This page does not treat a mayor’s interest as a permit.
A White House spokesperson told the Guardian there had been “promising conversations” with Mr. Musk and executives from The Boring Company. The same story quotes Sam Teller, then a spokesman for the company: “a number of promising conversations with local, state and federal government officials,” “verbal support from key government decision makers for tunneling plans,” and an expectation “to secure the formal approvals necessary to break ground later this year.” Teller declined to name the localities.
Label: The Guardian’s account of those conversations on July 20, 2017. “Promising conversations” and “verbal support” are not the approval in the 15:09 UTC post. The story says he did not answer the Guardian’s questions about land and easements.
Claims / reporting / speculation
Teslarati’s later history was not re-opened
Teslarati (Joey Klender, October 19, 2026) is the writeup that carried the new reply. It quotes “Permits were impossible to get” and the 2017 sentence. It also says Maryland later issued a conditional utility permit, that Washington granted a 2018 preliminary permit for a vacant lot, that a draft environmental assessment for a Washington–Baltimore segment appeared in 2019, and that by April 2021 the project was off the company website and the Federal Highway Administration had no indication of further interest.
Label: Teslarati’s account. This desk did not open the Maryland permit, the District permit, the 2019 assessment, the company website as it stood in 2021, or an FHWA letter. Those sentences stay Teslarati’s. They are not a finding on this page that a permit was issued or that a file was closed.
Teslarati’s closing reading, that the reply frames a regulatory impasse, is that outlet’s analysis.
On the map
The Boring Company is the company. Vegas Loop is the system with stations and riders. The 2013 paper is a different document and does not have its own page yet. This page is the 2017 post, the same-day reporting, and the October 19 reply.
Sources
Checked October 19, 2026.
| Source | Grade | What it supports |
|---|---|---|
| Mr. Musk, October 19, 2026, 08:43:25 UTC | D, primary for what he wrote | “Permits were impossible to get.” A reply to @cybrtrkguy. Read through fxtwitter |
| @cybrtrkguy, October 18, 2026, 20:56:00 UTC | D, primary for what he wrote | “What happened.” Quote-post of the 2017 sentence. fxtwitter names the account The Cybertruck Guy |
| Mr. Musk, July 20, 2017, 15:09:10 UTC | D, primary for what he wrote | “Verbal govt approval” and “NY-DC in 29 mins.” The elevator sentence is not in this status |
| The Guardian, July 20, 2017, Wong and Levin | B | The walk-back quotation. City and state spokespeople. White House “promising conversations.” Teller’s “verbal support.” The walk-back status ID was not retrieved |
| Teslarati, October 19, 2026, Joey Klender | B for the reply, C for the later history | Carries the October 19 sentence. Maryland, Washington, the 2019 assessment, and the 2021 removal were not re-opened here |
A direct fetch of x.com returned 403. The three posts were read through fxtwitter.