N.Y., N.J., Feds Agree on Funding for $20 Billion Rail Tunnel

Officials in New York and New Jersey, the U.S. Department of Transportation and Amtrak have agreed on a first step toward building a $20 billion rail tunnel between New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.

The agreement, reached earlier this month, calls for setting up the Gateway Development Corp., which will begin a search for an even spilt of federal and state funding for the project that has been immersed in a political controversy for the past few years.

“It was a long struggle, but getting all the parties on the same page is a very big first step,” U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a Nov. 12 statement. “We will scour every part of the federal government to get our 50%, and we know the states will do the same.”

Gateway Development will allow all four key stakeholders to “work together effectively,” Schumer said.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said, “This agreement is a significant step forward for the Gateway project which, because of the current tunnel’s deteriorating condition and growing demand, is among our nation’s most important infrastructure projects."

The 50% federal funding commitment came after Govs. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) and Chris Christie (R-N.J.) sent a letter to DOT on Sept. 15 announcing that their states would take responsibility for developing a funding plan to cover the other half of the project costs if the federal government committed to provide half of the funding.

As part of the agreement, Christie and Cuomo announced they will direct the Port Authority of New York-New Jersey in consultation with its federal partners — Amtrak and DOT — to establish a development corporation to oversee the construction and execution of the tunnel.

The project is a set of infrastructure improvements between, approximately, Newark, New Jersey, and New York’s Penn Station that will preserve existing service levels and ultimately permit significant growth in trans-Hudson service.

It will modernize existing assets, strengthen system resiliency and increase track, tunnel, bridge and station capacity carrying today’s 450 daily trains under the Hudson while creating the capacity to allow a doubling of passenger trains into Manhattan, Amtrak Vice President Stephen Gardner told a New Jersey Senate committee in August.

The project includes a new Hudson River tunnel, which would permit the closure of the existing century-old tunnel for the required improvement while supporting current volumes of daily traffic.

The existing tunnel was damaged after being submerged in salt water during Hurricane Sandy.

Although the plan is limited to passenger rail, some advocates have said that it also could include freight rail traveling during commuter off hours.

“They have been talking about possibly rail down the road,” said Gail Toth, executive director of the New Jersey Motor Truck Association. “They would all share the lines but would probably have to run [freight] at night.”