Boring Co. plans Vegas Loop airport rides in early 2026

Boring Co. President Steve Davis said the company’s Vegas Loop project is set for further expansion early next year.

During a live chat last week on social media platform X, he called it the largest infrastructure project in the nation.

The Vegas Loop has over 10 miles of tunnels dug, with about 4 miles of that operational, Davis said during the chat, which was mainly focused on Boring Co.’s Nashville loop plans. The next step will be opening the University Center Loop that he says will feature the first station to serve Harry Reid International Airport.

The Boring Co. has two sites that are within the airport’s vicinity: one at 4744 Paradise Road, across from UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center, and the other at 5032 Palo Verde Road.

Last month, Boring Co. was given the green light by the Nevada Transportation Authority to operate limited surface rides to and from the airport. The rides will feature a separate fee for above-ground trips on top of the cost of a loop ride. Each airport ride is limited to 4 miles or less of above-ground travel and must feature a portion of the trip being taken in the Vegas Loop.

Boring Co. aims to begin airport rides in the first quarter of 2026, Davis noted.

The company has submitted an Automated Vehicle Identification permit application to the Clark County Department of Aviation, which is under review, according to airport spokesman Luke Nimmo.

“As with any commercial ground transportation operator, the AVI permitting process involves multiple steps, including documentation review, insurance verification, and coordination with other regulatory requirements,” Nimmo said in an email. “Timelines can vary.”

Increasing capacity

Davis said that when the airport line opens, targeted for the beginning of next year, the system will be able to handle between 17,000 and 20,000 people an hour. Once the 68 miles of tunnels and 104 stations are fully built, capacity will jump again.

“When Vegas Loop is fully built out, it will be about 90,000 people per hour,” Davis said.

The full build-out includes dozens of stops on the Strip and stations in downtown Las Vegas, Chinatown, Allegiant Stadium and other points of interest in the heart of the city.

The under-construction University Center Loop runs from the 4744 Paradise site to the Westgate. That portion has 11 planned stops, including Virgin Hotels Las Vegas and a planned Boring Co.-owned apartment complex.

When the Convention Center Loop initially opened, a stress test was conducted and the then-0.8-mile system could handle 4,400 passengers an hour, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The loop system since has added stations at Resorts World, Westgate and Encore and additional convention center stops. With the expansion, Davis said, the Vegas Loop can now handle 6,600 passengers an hour.

About 3.5 million people have ridden the Vegas Loop since it opened in the spring of 2021, Davis said. The system uses various Tesla model vehicles transporting passengers in underground tunnels in a point-to-point system.

The point-to-point aspect of the Vegas Loop is aimed at maximizing the amount of ridership. Unlike the Las Vegas Monorail, which makes stops at each station along its route, the Vegas Loop will take passengers directly from their originating point to their destination, without stopping.

“We also use the Las Vegas Strip as our example, because that’s where we’re building right now,” Davis said. “There’s about 50 stops from the airport all the way to the north portion of Vegas. If you had to stop at every one, that would be a two-hour trip. But there’s nowhere in Vegas on that realm that’s less than five minutes and in general in all of Vegas nowhere that’s less than nine minutes.”

Full build-out

To get to full build-out in Las Vegas, Boring Co. will need to see between 300 and 400 permits issued for the project, Davis said.

He also said the Vegas Loop operations are having round-the-clock inspections as the system is being expanded.

“We even invite our local stakeholders, like the convention center, to inspect us, and then of course we have our internal inspectors,” Davis said. “There are often times where there are more inspectors on site than there are Boring Company employees. And this isn’t a knock, this is actually a good thing. So, enormous amount of oversight on this.”

Nevertheless, Boring Co. has been cited multiple times for building and environmental violations with the Vegas Loop project.

The Vegas Loop last month saw the launch of Boring Co. using full self-driving vehicles in the loop. The autonomous rides feature a safety driver for now, but the goal is to remove the safety driver at some point, according the LVCVA President and CEO Steve Hill.

Boring Co. plans to offer a mix of self-driving and driver-provided rides in the future to cater to all customers, Davis said.

Tunneling costs

Current Boring Co. tunneling operations cost about $10 million a mile, Davis said.

“That’s for the tunnel. Obviously, there’s more parts of the system,” he said.

While expensive, Davis said those costs pale in comparison with how much it would cost to build a subway. Davis claimed that the average cost to build a mile of subway tunnel in the U.S. is between $900 million and $5 billion.

In the next two to five years, Boring Co. wants to get the tunneling costs down to between $3 million and $4 million a mile. That will likely be made possible once the Prufrock 6 boring machine is in use, which is still a few years out.

“Which is less than it costs to build a highway lane,” Davis said. “It’s very expensive, and we don’t have enough money to build these in 20 cities. But we do have enough to build in three.”

Fire safety

Fire safety regulations were one issue that held up the opening of new Vegas Loop stations, such as Westgate. Davis provided more detail about what the fire safety plans entail.

With the Vegas Loop there is about one safety drill per week featuring area firefighters and police officers to ensure they are ready to respond to an in-tunnel incident, should one occur, Davis said.

There has yet to be a fire in the Vegas Loop, but Davis said it’s not reasonable to think there won’t be one in a loop.

If there is a fire, there are two ways for first responders to enter the loop. There are access points throughout a tunnel, including at stations, emergency entrances and cross passages.

“We work with the fire department to make sure they are placed in the correct places,” Davis said.

Firefighters also have access to specially designed vehicles stationed along tunnels that are outfitted with equipment. And there are standpipes preloaded with water, with hose valves stationed about every 150 feet.

“What happens in case of a fire, all of the evacuation procedures (are followed),” Davis said. “It’s much easier to evacuate small cars than it is larger vehicles. … Then the ventilation system kicks on automatic, and it blows the smoke on the opposite of the path. Then it’s up to the first responders.”

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X. Send questions and comments to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com.