"New CEO Carrie Schindler's term is off to a promising start, as SBCTA staff is recommending that the board finally kill the ONT Connector Project ( Item 24, Page 599) at its meeting tomorrow morning, December 3. The ONT Connector project is/was first proposed by Elon Musk in 2019 to connect Rancho Cucamonga Metrolink/Future Brightline West Station and ONT Airport via a tunnel for autonomous underground vehicles."
""Transit advocates have been telling SBCTA for years that the ONT Connector 'Tesla Tunnels' project would be unsafe, costly, unnecessary, and impractical," writes Brianna Egan, founder of Inland Empire Urbanists. "We sent in hundreds of letters during the Draft EIR stage and at public comment to the board. These realities have finally hit home after six years of planning and study, and thankfully before any shovels have hit the ground.""
"For more details on why advocates opposed the project, read Streetsblog's March article, " Inland Empire Advocates Push Back on Autonomous Car Tunnel Plan for Airport." Briefly, advocates noted that the technology was untested-which raised questions about whether it would receive additional outside funding or attract riders-and that a mile-and-a-half tunneling project would have far more serious environmental impacts than more traditional transit options."
SBCTA staff recommended that the board cancel the ONT Connector Project at its December 3 meeting, effectively ending further study of the proposed tunnel. The project was proposed in 2019 by Elon Musk to link Rancho Cucamonga Metrolink/Future Brightline West Station and ONT Airport via a 1.4-mile autonomous vehicle tunnel. Transit advocates argued the plan was unsafe, costly, unnecessary, impractical, and untested, raising doubts about funding and ridership and noting higher environmental impacts than conventional transit. Ending the project study allows SBCTA to evaluate alternative airport-terminal connections, potentially reducing future vehicle miles traveled with other transit options.
Read at Streetsblog
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