Elon Musk’s New Transportation Gimmick Is Combining Tunnels With Rockets

International travel can take so long, even when moving at the speed of sound. It seems Tesla CEO Elon Musk is of the same opinion since he recently revealed a new plan that he has been cooking up to save on travel time. Apparently, he wants to combine tunnels, hyperloops, and space rockets to get anywhere on Earth in about an hour or so.

Musk’s plans to completely revolutionize the transportation industry has not exactly been a secret, but recently, he laid out a clearer outline of his plans for everyone to see. Or rather, SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell did in a recent conversation about the BFR Earth-to-Earth plan that has been in the works for months.

Shotwell revealed that the first version of the biggest rocket that SpaceX is planning to build can seat up to 100 passengers. One BFR will apparently be capable of making up to twelve trips in a single day, which is astounding when you put it in the context that it’s basically a spaceship.

Ticket prices are reasonable considering the context, as well, with the estimated flight from New York City to Shanghai costing about $2,000 or so without factoring in inflation. Shotwell said that she expects this to happen, although it might take quite a while before it does. About 10 years, barring delays.

As to the proposed plan of Musk in actually shaving the total amount of time that travelers will spend on the move, he Tweeted that traveling via hyperloop from the city center to any spaceport can take only 15 minutes or less. Combined with the 30-minute flight time of the BFR, disembarking, launch countdowns, and everything else, one hour of traveling is about what passengers can expect using all modes of transportation that will be made available.

Of course, this all hinges on the actual availability of a hyperloop, the BFR, and everything else in between. As such, cutting world travel to under an hour could still take decades.