TRENTON, N.Y. —New Jersey state senators have introduced a bill to create a commission to oversee construction of a new rail tunnel between New York and New Jersey, the latest step in trying to move forward the stalled Gateway project.
NJSpotlight.com explains that the legislation would give the Gateway Development Corp., currently a small agency with a three-member board, the authority to receive federal grants and loans for tunnel financing. It would also give the agency oversight powers.
A press release says the bipartisan bill mirrors legislation working its way through the New York State Assembly. The goal of both bills is to create a nine-member commission to oversee the project, with three members from each state and three from Amtrak. It would require each state to pay 50 percent of the combined New York-New Jersey share of project costs. The bill also gives the governor of each state veto power over the agency’s actions, as they have over the Port Authority and other bistate agencies.
The bill was introduced by state senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, Minority Leader Tom Kean, and Transportation Committee Chair Patrick Diegnan.
Gerald, you are repeating a myth
Yes – the New York Metro area generates a chunk of the nation’s GDP – I don’t know if it’s 25-30% – that sounds high, but the actual dependency of the New York Metro area on those tunnels is close to 0%. The only organization that really depends on those specific tunnels is Amtrak. And Amtrak’s contribution to the New York Metro GDP is probably so small as to not be able to be measured.
Sure – commuters also use the tunnels – but only a small fraction of the 4 million people who commute to Manhattan daily use those Amtrak tunnels (most Manhattan workers live in NYC and use the subway) and, of the rest, between Metro North, Long Island RR, and PATH (each of which carry more people into Manhattan than the two tunnels). Then there are the people who drive or take a bus. So the number who use the Amtrak tunnels daily is small. By small, I mean compared to the 4 million total.
Finally, if those tunnels became unavailable, that “small” group of commuters would rapidly find alternatives. Don’t forget, from the West there are also four other rail tunnels (PATH), two highway tunnels (Holland and Lincoln), three bridges (Washington, Verrazzano, and Tappan Zee), and even some ferries.
So sure,the tunnels are important – but let’s not exaggerate!
Richard Peck, exactly right but I expect your sentence should be “…charge Amtrak to use it.” and in addition add a ticket tax to each ticket sold for trains that run use it. Let those who use the tunnels and benefit from them pay for it.
I would expand upon Richard Pack and Robert McGuire’s idea about Amtrak paying to use the Hudson Tunnels to paying to use the entire NEC. The US Government should form a railroad equivalent of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (the Northeast Corridor Railway Development Corporation?) to construct, operate, and maintain the NEC. All users – Amtrak, NJDOT, Metro, etc. – would pay to operate on this rail “tollway.”
The first thing the GDC board should do is kill the Gateway Project as proposed by Amtrak. The process used to repair the Canarise Tunnels on the L-Train line has the potential to reduce the time and cost of repairing the Hudison River tunnels.
Leave Amtrak out of it . Build it and charge Amtrak to us it .
Jeffrey Blackwood,
It’s not gold plating, it’s absolutely necessary to have 4 tunnels into NYC, 25 – 30% of the U.S. GDP is generated by that area…if it ever fails the U.S. would look worse than the depression of the 30’s. Look at it this way, it’s the price for keeping the dollar as the worlds money and for staying at or near the top of the world(unless you want to fall further behind China than we already are.
Jeffrey I respect your opinions (two posts). Your point of view is important and can be weighed against the viewpoints of others. While I don’t know enough to either agree or disagree with you, I do believe you have done a service by giving us your thoughts.
The repair process used on the Canarise Tunnels allowed those tunnels to remain open. There were times during the off-peak hours when the frequency of the trains was reduced but the trains ran while the repairs continued. The Hudson Tunnels have been reported to have been less damaged than the Canarise Tunnels. As for adding building two additional tunnels, that could come later after the current tunnels are repaired. I understand Amtrak would like a four track “broadway” into NYC. I could be wrong, but it sounds a little like “gold plating” to me.
New tunnels are needed to increase capacity — project is super expensive because of add-ons like Penn South to demolish a entire block of Manhattan to build larger station. Cost of building one or two tunnels while repairing existing tubes is about $10-12 B compare to the $20-30 B with Penn South included.