A $20 trillion tunnel could link New York and London in 54 minutes

Being able to get to Europe in less than an hour sounds like an actual dream… but it might eventually become New Yorkers’ reality if the much-talked about Transatlantic Tunnel ends up becoming a concrete project.

Proposals for the plan to connect the U.K. and U.S. cities in 54 minutes have resurfaced, but it is Elon Musk’s comments from earlier this week that are making the news. Yesterday, in fact, Musk took to X to claim that The Boring Company, his own infrastructure and tunnel construction business, would be able to build the Transatlantic Tunnel for a fraction of the $19.8 trillion that experts are claiming to be the budget for the project.

“The @boringcompany could do it for 1000X less money,” he wrote on the platform.

As far-fetched as the whole thing sounds, according to Newsweek, developments in vacuum tube technology have, actually, brought the concept closer to reality.

“By creating a vacuum within the tunnel and using pressurized vehicles, trains traveling along the structure could theoretically reach speeds of more than 3,000 mph, making the journey between London and New York barely an hour long,” reports the outlet.

A similar infrastructure already connects France and the U.K. Built over a six-year period, the Channel Tunnel specifically links Folkestone in Kent, England and Coquelles, in Pas-de-Calais, France.

Before you start dreaming about your one-hour trip to the West End from midtown Manhattan, you should know that, according to Newsweek‘s calculations, if the proposed Transatlantic Tunnel were to be built at the same speed of the Channel Tunnel, it would take 782 years to complete.

Which is all to say: just buy that plane ticket to the U.K.