Vegas Loop Adds Station at Sahara As Underground Tunnel System Expands Up the Strip

^{The new stop for the underground Vegas Loop system at SAHARA Las Vegas. Riders are picked up in a Tesla and can travel to several different stations around the Strip and Convention Center. (Photo: courtesy of SAHARA Las Vegas)}

LAS VEGAS – Sahara Las Vegas opened a new Vegas Loop station on Thursday, becoming the fifth Strip resort connected to Elon Musk's underground transportation system. The addition extends the network farther north on the Strip, putting people visiting the Sahara just a short Tesla ride away from the Las Vegas Convention Center and other north-Strip resorts.

Sahara now joins the Westgate as the second casino-resort with a Vegas Loop station and a stop for the Las Vegas Monorail. The Loop system is designed to help writers skip the kind of traffic that builds up on Vegas surface streets around the Convention Center and the Strip during busy events.

Access to both the Monorail and the Vegas Loop at Sahara makes it an ideal property for convention travelers attending conventions like CES, SEMA, G2E, or NAB. Service from the Sahara station is now available, offering another transportation option for anyone near the northern part of the Strip who'd rather skip more expensive options like renting a car or relying on rideshare.

What Is the Vegas Loop?

The Vegas Loop is an underground tunnel system built and operated by The Boring Company, the tunneling business founded by Elon Musk. Riders take a Tesla at one of several stations located at different resorts, the Las Vegas Convention Center complex, or Harry Reid International Airport, and are driven to their destination by a human driver.

The Boring Company's tunnels can handle speeds up to 155 mph, but the Vegas Loop Teslas are currently operating at around 35 to 40 mph. The tunnels themselves are extremely tight, at only 12.5 feet wide, which means drivers have to be extremely careful navigating them, since there is only about two to three feet of space between the walls.

The Central Station for the Vegas Loop at the Las Vegas Convention Center. (Photo: Jerome Cid / Alamy)

The system started off pretty small. The original Las Vegas Convention Center Loop opened in 2021 to solve the logistical headache many visitors face when getting around the 200-acre complex. It can take about 20 to 25 minutes to walk from one end of the Convention Center to the other, but the Loop can cut that to about a two-minute drive via the underground tunnels. 

Fontainebleau was the most recent addition to the station lineup before Sahara, opening its own station in January 2026. As of this week, a total of five resorts on or near the Strip offer their own Vegas Loop stations:

• Sahara
• Fontainebleau
• Resorts World
• Westgate
• Encore

All of these connect to the four stations at the Las Vegas Convention Center, as well as two stations at Harry Reid International Airport (formerly McCarran International Airport), at Terminals 1 and 3. 

As of December 2025, more than 3.5 million people had ridden the Vegas Loop since it opened, according to Boring Company President Steve Davis. Within just March, the system carried roughly 82,000 passengers during CONEXPO-CON/AGG, North America's largest construction trade show held in Vegas every three years.

A Growing Underground Network

The added stop at Sahara is the first step in a bigger plan for the Vegas Loop. Local and county officials have already approved plans to expand the Loop to 68 miles of tunnel and 104 stations across the Las Vegas Valley.

The City of Las Vegas approved the Boring Company’s request in January to tunnel further north to expand into downtown Las Vegas. Five stops are planned for the The Strat, Circa, Plaza, and Slotzilla on the Fremont Street Experience, as well as other locations. 

A two-mile tunnel expansion is also under construction along the Paradise corridor, which will run from Westgate toward a new station near Tropicana Avenue. Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill has said he hopes that construction will progress quickly enough for the line to open in time for the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix in November in November, which could bring around 300,000 people to the Strip.

The Boring Company originally purchased 1.4 acres in Las Vegas’s Chinatown neighborhood to add tunnels underneath Spring Mountain Road, linking people to the many restaurants and shops. But the project currently has no timeline, as stakeholder Joe Muscaglione said in March that the Chinatown proposal ultimately did not make the company's top 16 list of locations to receive a free tunnel system. 

The network is also headed underneath UNLV. The Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) Board of Regents approved a station on campus near the Thomas and Mack Center in June after initially rejecting the proposal in December 2025. Tunneling has already begun underneath the site, but no surface construction has been completed yet. The station is expected to be complete within 12 months of groundbreaking, once permits are finalized. 

This station, in particular, may see different use than the others, since UNLV students are local and many have said they wouldn’t necessarily need to use it day-to-day. On the other hand, UNLV’s Interim President Chris Heavey has said that the Vegas Loop station will likely help alleviate parking stress for students when people flood the campus for events at the Thomas and Mack Center. 

How to Use the Vegas Loop

Rides within the Convention Center complex are free for convention attendees with a badge, but travel between resorts or to the Convention Center runs $4.25 per rider or $7 round trip. Riders looking to head to the airport will need to hail a Tesla from Westgate or Resorts World for $12.

There is typically signage directing people to the Vegas Loop station. Here are the locations for each station at each property:

• Resorts World: located inside The District (Level B1)
• Westgate: near the main valet/entrance
• Encore Las Vegas: near the Encore North Valet and parking garage
• Fontainebleau Las Vegas: South Valet (Level V-1)
• Las Vegas Convention Center: individual stations for the west, north, central, and south halls

Tickets can be purchased in advance online through the Vegas Loop’s website or by scanning directly at their station.

Sahara's new Loop is operating daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., with extended hours during major conventions. The station is located at the resort’s Paradise Road entrance on the east side of the property.