LAS VEGAS, Nevada — The Boring Company, an infrastructure and tunnel construction firm founded by Elon Musk, celebrated a milestone this week with the opening of its Encore station on the Vegas Loop, marking the second Las Vegas Strip location for the innovative underground transportation system. The expansion reflects the company’s ambitious vision to revolutionize urban transit, a mission championed by Musk, who is also known for leading Tesla and SpaceX.
The Encore station, which began operations on Monday, joins a growing network that started in 2021 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The system, designed to shuttle passengers in Tesla vehicles through a series of tunnels, has steadily expanded beyond its original hub. Resorts World became the first Strip-adjacent station in 2022, followed by the Westgate station earlier this year. The Encore station is the third to open outside the convention center, bringing the total number of operational stops to seven.
The timing of the Encore station’s debut aligns with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention, which kicked off this week at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The event is expected to attract over 60,000 attendees, many of whom stay at nearby hotels like the Encore and Wynn. The new station offers a quick two-minute ride to the convention center, enhancing convenience for exhibitors, attendees, and organizers. Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, noted that the addition significantly improves the experience for convention-goers.
Currently, only one tunnel connects the Encore station to the convention center, with a second tunnel under construction and slated to open later this year. Until then, traffic in the single tunnel will be managed to handle bidirectional travel, a strategy previously used when the Resorts World station launched. Construction crews are actively working on the second tunnel, with machinery already in place to complete the link to the Wynn and Encore properties.
The Vegas Loop’s origins trace back to a $52.5 million contract awarded to The Boring Company by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority in 2019. The initial system debuted at the convention center with four stations: three within the expo halls and a fourth, the Riviera Station, added last year in the parking lot near the west hall. The success of that launch spurred plans for a broader network, now taking shape across the city.
Beyond the Strip, The Boring Company is making strides on the University Center Loop, an offshoot connecting the convention center’s Silver Lot to a station near the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Thomas & Mack Center on Paradise Road. This branch includes stops at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas and a site just north of the hotel-casino, where the company plans to develop a multifamily residential unit with an attached convenience store. Construction is progressing northward along Paradise Road toward the convention center, with significant headway reported.
When fully realized, the Vegas Loop will span 68 miles of tunnels and feature 104 stations, forming a point-to-point transit system capable of transporting up to 90,000 passengers per hour in Tesla vehicles. Elon Musk’s vision for the project is rooted in his broader goal of alleviating urban congestion through underground infrastructure, a concept he first pitched with The Boring Company’s founding in 2016. While a completion date for the full build-out remains undisclosed, the steady addition of stations like Encore signals momentum.