Elon Musk says The Boring Company is working on a tunnel that would carry people between Austin and San Antonio at more than 200 mph in under 30 minutes. No route, stations, cost, or timeline has been released. Here is what that means for anyone buying along I-35 today.
What Was Announced
- On September 20, 2026, Musk posted that Boring is working on a “simple, precursor Hyperloop tunnel” between the two cities.
- He claimed speeds above 200 mph and a consistent trip of under 30 minutes.
- The company replied publicly that it would be honored to build the project and has posted related job openings.
What Is Still Unknown
- Cost, route, station locations, and timeline have not been released.
- City, county, and regional mobility officials in Austin and San Antonio said they had no contact with the company before the post.
- No permit filings, right-of-way purchases, or environmental reviews have been announced.
What It Means for Buyers Today
- Price every home on the commute that exists now: I-35, SH 130, or one Amtrak train a day in each direction.
- Do not pay a premium for a home because it might sit near a future station that has no confirmed location.
- Treat the tunnel as upside you watch, not a feature you buy.
Where Corridor Demand Comes From Now
- Kyle and New Braunfels both ranked among the nation’s fastest-growing large cities in Census estimates for 2022.
- That growth is driven by jobs and prices in both metros, not by a transit line.
- Station-area price premiums documented in other metros only appear once frequent service actually runs.
Is the Austin to San Antonio tunnel approved?
No. As of early October 2026 the project is a social media announcement backed by a company statement and job postings. No government agency has announced a review, no route has been filed, and officials in both cities said they learned about it from Musk’s post. Any tunnel of this length would need regulatory approvals, environmental review, and land rights before construction could start.
How long does it take to get from Austin to San Antonio today?
The trip is roughly 80 miles on I-35. Musk said congestion can push the drive to 2.5 hours, and the stretch of I-35 through central Austin has topped the state’s most congested roadway ranking. Amtrak’s Texas Eagle runs once a day in each direction, taking about 2.5 hours northbound and about 3.5 hours southbound on the current timetable.
The Bottom Line Up Front
The proposed Boring Company tunnel between Austin and San Antonio is an announcement, not a project. There is no route, no station list, no cost estimate, and no approval from any agency. Buyers along the I-35 corridor should make decisions on today’s commute and today’s prices, and treat the tunnel as a possible future benefit that only matters if stations land near the home they own.
Austin and San Antonio have tried to connect by passenger rail for nearly three decades, and The Boring Company’s earlier San Antonio airport tunnel stalled after a local agency approved a feasibility study. That history does not mean this proposal will fail. It means buyers should wait for concrete signals before letting it shape what they pay or where they live.
- Musk claims more than 200 mph and under 30 minutes between the two cities, with no published route or stations.
- Regional officials say an 80-mile tunnel faces approvals, environmental review, and land rights hurdles.
- Lone Star Rail, the last serious Austin to San Antonio passenger plan, was removed from Austin’s long-range plan in 2016.
- Research on station areas shows value effects within walking distance of frequent service, not along an entire corridor.
- The smart move today is to buy on current commute math and watch for permits, station sites, and agency involvement.
What Musk Announced and What Is Still Missing
Musk posted on X on September 20, 2026 that The Boring Company is working on a “simple, precursor Hyperloop tunnel” between Austin and San Antonio, with speeds above 200 mph. In a follow-up, he said congestion can make the trip take up to 2.5 hours and that the company could cut it to a consistent trip of under 30 minutes. The company’s account replied that it would be excited and honored to build the project, and Boring has since pointed to job openings tied to the effort.
What the announcement leaves out matters to a homebuyer. No cost, route, or construction timeline has been released. Transportation and government officials in Austin and San Antonio said they had no communication with Musk or the company before the post, and the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority said it is not involved in any plans. The company does have real resources behind it: Boring raised about $3 billion in September 2026 and is headquartered in Bastrop, where it has been building test tunnels.
The track record cuts both ways. Boring’s Las Vegas system carries passengers in Tesla vehicles through tunnels under the convention center and parts of the Strip, and it is the only place where a Boring tunnel moves the public today. At the same time, a decade after Musk’s original hyperloop paper, no hyperloop carries passengers anywhere, and several earlier Boring proposals in other cities stalled.
How Long Austin to San Antonio Takes Today
For buyers, the commute that exists right now is the one to price. Austin and San Antonio sit roughly 80 miles apart along I-35, and the central Austin section of that interstate has repeatedly ranked as the most congested roadway in Texas in the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s annual list. Drivers heading between the metros also use SH 130, the toll road that runs east of Austin and rejoins the corridor near Seguin, to avoid the worst of central Austin traffic.
| Option | What it looks like today | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Drive I-35 | About 80 miles; Musk cited trips of up to 2.5 hours in congestion | Flexible schedules and off-peak trips |
| SH 130 toll road | Bypasses central Austin I-35; tolls apply | Trips starting east or north of Austin |
| Amtrak Texas Eagle | One train each way daily; northbound leaves San Antonio 6:48 AM and reaches Austin 9:16 AM; southbound leaves Austin 7:22 PM and reaches San Antonio 10:46 PM | Occasional trips, not a daily commute |
| Proposed Boring tunnel | Claimed above 200 mph and under 30 minutes; no route, stations, cost, or timeline released | Not available |
The practical takeaway is simple. If you plan to work in one metro and live in the other or in a town between them, your monthly cost includes fuel, tolls, and hours in the car. Run that number before you fall in love with a price per square foot that looks appealing 40 miles down the road. For how the two markets differ for buyers, see the Austin vs San Antonio comparison.
Why Austin to San Antonio Transit Keeps Stalling
This corridor has been the subject of passenger rail plans for almost 30 years. In 1997 the Texas Legislature authorized the Austin-San Antonio Inter-Municipal Commuter Rail District, which later became the Lone Star Rail District. Voters approved a statewide proposition in 2005 that allowed the district to relocate Union Pacific’s freight line so passenger trains could use the existing tracks through Georgetown, Austin, Buda, Kyle, San Marcos, New Braunfels, and San Antonio.
That plan, a $2.4 billion project, depended on Union Pacific’s right-of-way. In February 2016 Union Pacific ended its agreement with the district, citing concerns about mixing freight and passenger traffic. In October 2016 the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization voted to remove Lone Star Rail from its long-range plan, and the money set aside for it was redirected toward studying other options.
The Boring Company has its own San Antonio history. In March 2022 the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority approved a feasibility study for Boring’s proposal to run Teslas through a nine-mile tunnel connecting San Antonio International Airport, the Pearl, and downtown. The project stalled, and reporting later described the company as having stopped responding to the agency. Environmental groups had raised concerns about tunneling and the Edwards Aquifer, which supplies San Antonio’s drinking water. An 80-mile route between the two metros would face the same kinds of questions across 80 miles.
What Would Have to Happen Before Anyone Rides It
Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority Executive Director James Bass said an 80-mile intercity tunnel would face significant hurdles in regulatory approvals, environmental considerations, and land rights, while noting that Musk has succeeded before by departing from conventional industry practice. Christian Claudel, a transportation engineering professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told Spectrum News the idea is technically feasible but that federal authorities would not approve a system this new right away.
For a buyer, those hurdles translate into a sequence of public events that would have to occur before the tunnel affects any home’s value or commute:
- A published route and station list. Without stations, no specific neighborhood gains access, so no specific home gains value.
- Agency involvement. State and regional transportation agencies would have to engage, and none has announced that it is.
- Environmental review. Tunneling across aquifer recharge areas and waterways along I-35 would draw scrutiny.
- Land rights. An 80-mile alignment crosses thousands of parcels and multiple jurisdictions.
- Funding and construction. Even with private capital, a project this size takes years to build and test before it carries riders.
None of these steps has been announced. That does not rule the project out, but it does put any real-world effect on commutes well beyond the typical five-to-seven-year horizon buyers plan around.
Who Would Benefit If It Gets Built
If a high-speed tunnel does get built, station location will decide almost everything about who benefits. Nothing released so far describes stops between the two cities, and Musk’s framing of a sub-30-minute trip points to a point-to-point link. A tunnel that only stops in Austin and San Antonio would mainly help people living near those two stations. Towns along I-35 would gain nothing directly unless a station landed in or near them.
The research on transit and home values supports that narrow view. A study commissioned by the American Public Transportation Association and the National Association of Realtors looked at five metro areas from 2006 to 2011 and found that homes within walking distance of rail and bus rapid transit stations outperformed their regions by an average of 42 percent during the downturn. Those were high-frequency systems in established metros, and the effect showed up near stations, not along every mile of the line.
That means two things for buyers. First, any premium tied to a future tunnel would concentrate within a short distance of actual stations once service begins, not across whole counties. Second, buying today in hopes of a station later is a bet on a location nobody has announced. If you own a home that ends up near a station, that is a gain. Paying extra now for that possibility is speculation, not planning.
The Corridor Towns Buyers Are Weighing Today
The towns between Austin and San Antonio were growing long before this announcement, and their growth does not depend on it. In Census estimates for 2022, Kyle grew 10.9 percent, ranking as the third fastest-growing large city in the country, and New Braunfels crossed the 100,000-resident mark with 104,707 residents. Buyers come to these towns for price, space, and access to jobs in both metros.
| Area | County | Where it sits on the corridor | LRG resource |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kyle and Buda | Hays | South of Austin along I-35, closest to Austin jobs | Cities near Austin |
| San Marcos | Hays | Near the midpoint, with an Amtrak stop | Cities near Austin |
| New Braunfels | Comal | Between San Marcos and San Antonio | New Braunfels neighborhoods |
| Schertz and Cibolo | Guadalupe | Northeast edge of San Antonio, near I-35 and Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph | Guadalupe County cities |
Each of these areas carries its own tax rates, HOA and MUD patterns, and drive times to each metro. A Military buyer assigned to Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph will weigh Schertz and Cibolo very differently from an Austin tech worker weighing Kyle, and neither decision should hinge on a tunnel. For Comal County options beyond New Braunfels, see the Comal County guide, and browse current New Braunfels homes for sale, Schertz homes for sale, or Cibolo homes for sale.
How to Buy on the I-35 Corridor Without Betting on a Tunnel
The announcement is a good reason to think about the corridor, but a poor reason to change how you evaluate a specific home. These rules keep the decision grounded:
- Price the commute you have. Drive your actual route at rush hour before you write an offer, and include fuel and tolls in your monthly budget.
- Refuse a speculative premium. If a listing or seller points to the tunnel to justify a higher price, treat that as a negotiating point in your favor, since no station exists.
- Model the full monthly cost. Taxes, insurance, HOA, and MUD or PID charges vary widely between corridor towns. Run every option through the Monthly Payment Stack Checklist before you compare prices.
- Match your hold period to reality. If you expect to sell within five to seven years, assume the tunnel will not be running when you do.
- Keep a long-term upside in mind, not a short-term one. If you plan to stay a decade or more near the center of either metro, a future station could help. That is a bonus on a home that already works, not a reason to buy one that does not.
Signals That Would Make the Tunnel Real
If you want to track this project the way an investor would, ignore new social media posts and watch for documents and decisions. Any of these would be a meaningful step forward:
- A published route map and a list of station locations.
- Formal involvement by TxDOT, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority, or city and county governments.
- Environmental review filings, especially anything addressing aquifer and waterway crossings.
- Land purchases, easements, or right-of-way agreements along the alignment.
- A construction start date backed by contracts, not just a target.
Until those appear, the tunnel belongs in the same category as earlier Austin to San Antonio transit plans: worth watching, not worth paying for.
The Bottom Line
Musk’s proposed tunnel would change life on the I-35 corridor if it gets built, but today it has no route, stations, cost, or approvals. Austin and San Antonio have pursued a fast connection for nearly 30 years, and the last serious plan ended when the right-of-way fell through. Buy on the commute and costs you can verify now, refuse to pay extra for a station that does not exist, and watch for route maps, agency involvement, and environmental filings as the real signals that this project is moving.
Frequently Asked Questions
How fast would the Boring Company tunnel between Austin and San Antonio be?
Musk claimed the tunnel would carry passengers at more than 200 mph and make the trip in under 30 minutes. Those figures come from his social media posts, not from engineering documents or a filed proposal. The company has not released details on vehicles, stations, or how passengers would board, so the claimed travel time cannot be checked against a real design yet.
Where would the stations be?
No station locations have been announced. Nothing released so far describes stops between Austin and San Antonio, and the sub-30-minute claim suggests a point-to-point link between the two cities. Until a route and station list are published, no neighborhood in Kyle, San Marcos, New Braunfels, or anywhere else on the corridor can claim it will be served.
Will the tunnel raise home prices along I-35?
Not unless it is built, and even then mostly near stations. Research on transit systems in five metro areas found that homes within walking distance of frequent-service stations held value far better than their regions during the 2006 to 2011 downturn. That effect was local to stations. A point-to-point tunnel would likely help areas near its two ends rather than every town in between.
Should I buy in New Braunfels or Kyle now because of the tunnel?
Buy in New Braunfels or Kyle if the home works with today’s commute, taxes, and monthly costs. Do not buy there, or pay more, because of the tunnel. With no route, stations, or approvals, any benefit is uncertain and likely years away. Both towns have grown quickly on their own, so evaluate them on current facts and treat any future transit as a possible bonus.
Has anyone tried to connect Austin and San Antonio by transit before?
Yes. The Lone Star Rail District, created from a commuter rail district the Legislature authorized in 1997, planned passenger service on Union Pacific’s freight line. Union Pacific ended its agreement in February 2016, and the Austin area’s planning organization removed the project from its long-range plan that October. Amtrak’s Texas Eagle still runs one train a day in each direction between the two cities.
What would show the tunnel is actually moving forward?
Look for a published route and station list, formal involvement from TxDOT or the regional mobility authorities in Austin and San Antonio, environmental review filings, and land or right-of-way agreements. A construction start backed by signed contracts would be the strongest signal. Social media posts, job listings, and funding rounds alone do not show that a specific route is advancing.
