The 104-year-old Hudson River train tunnels are decrepit, ravaged by Hurricane Sandy and age. Fixing them would create a commuter nightmare but Amtrak Chair Anthony Coscia wants the Gateway project for two brand new tunnels underway. Founding Director of the Alan Vorhees Transportation Center and former NJ Transit official Martin Robins told NJTV News Anchor Mary Alice Williams that it is an absolute necessity for the tunnels to be fixed.
Robins said that the existing tunnels are safe but there is risk attached to their continued use.
New tunnels would cost around $14 billion. Robins said that money is an issue and so are processes that need to be completed to get the project moving forward. He said that Amtrak has not been given that much money by the federal government to pursue the engineering on Gateway. He said that environmental work is just beginning on the project.
If it is chosen to repair each of the existing tunnels one at a time, it is estimated to cost $689 million. Robins said that he thinks that plan is an absolute necessity and Amtrak is treating it that way. He said that he hopes Coscia will be able to get that amount of money for the project from Congress.
“The $680 million that was talked about, I don’t know if there is going to be any share expected from New Jersey. I doubt it. The most important thing and the thing that I think we really need to keep our eye on is the financing of the Gateway project. That is the part of the Gateway scenario that is completely not advanced anywhere,” said Robins. “There needs to be a major federal commitment and there needs to be a commitment, certainly from the state of New Jersey, and perhaps from the state of New York.”
Robins said that if history is any guide, New York will not contribute any money to the project. He said that it is an assumption on the part of New Yorkers that everyone wants to have a piece of the Manhattan economy and that they will pay for it. New Jersey has been mounting public transportation improvements for decades that bring people to Manhattan and there has been very little in the way of a New York contribution to those projects, said Robins. He said that New York has been spending its money on the subway system, the Second Avenue Subway and the Long Island Railroad access project. He said that it’s not perfect on the New York side but there never seems to be room for New York to accept a responsibility for New Jersey’s needs. He said that one time New York made a contribution because New Yorkers in Rockland and Orange counties were going to benefit from the Secaucus transfer station and 10 percent of that project was paid for by the New York MTA.
“There was a report that in August, a portion of the wall in one of the tunnels under the Hudson River fell in and stopped service. Looking at the photos and pictures that were issued by Amtrak gives a lot of pause of what could possibly happen. There are cracks, there are many things to be concerned about. It is just absolutely essential that we now take the gloves off and seriously discuss how Gateway is going to proceed. Nothing is close to the financial issues and that is where the two states, particularly New Jersey and the federal government, need to start getting serious about the financing,” said Robins.
He said that he thinks that it is already well documented that the need for repairs is there. Robins said what he calls for is for the federal level to convene the three actors and get them together so they can begin to hammer out an understanding about what is going to happen. He said that the Amtrak report shows this particular issue right up in the front so the financial commitments have really got to be brought together in a very short order.
Related: Repairs Could Close Hudson River Train Tunnel for a Year