TRENTON-Last week, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie nixed the Access to the Region’s Core project, a trans-Hudson rail link that would have bored two new train tunnels under the river and ostensibly doubled commuter capacity between the Big Apple and the Garden State. Christie's decision was based in what he saw as the project's excessive costs.
Indeed, the Department of Transportation found that the project could outpace its $8.7 billion budget by up to $5 billion. And any cost overruns would be absorbed by state taxpayers--a burden that Christie says will not stand. “Considering the unprecedented fiscal and economic climate our state is facing, it is completely unthinkable to borrow more money and leave taxpayers responsible for billions in cost overruns,” he said in a statement. “The ARC project costs far more than New Jersey taxpayers can afford and the only prudent move is to end this project.”
The Democratic response was immediate and scathing. Senator Robert Menendez said that in addition to the $300 million already spent on the project, the state would have to repay that same sum in federal funding, leaving New Jersey with a “$600 million hole to nowhere.” The state’s other senator, long-time rail champion Frank Lautenberg, was even more critical: “Killing the ARC Tunnel will go down as one of the biggest public policy blunders in New Jersey’s history.”
Aside from the fact that $600 million seems a better bullet to bite than the $5 billion that could be wasted if the tunnel moves forward, the Rube Goldberg-style project is poorly designed. Rather than connecting to New York Penn station, the $3-billion terminal in New York City would dive 90 feet underground roughly a block away from Penn station. Meanwhile, only certain lines in New Jersey would have so-called direct access to Grand Central using a through-link, and this only after construction of a water tunnel is completed around 2020, followed by the through-link itself. Lines that would offer Grand Central service are the Bergen, Main, Sports Complex and Pascack Valley lines. These would be siphoned into the Northeast Corridor over a four-track inclined loop connection near Lautenberg Station.
There’s been a lot of chatter that Christie’s decision indicates he is anti-infrastructure, but New Jersey's flailing budget and treacherously-close-to-skyrocketing taxes impact everyone who lives here--not just those who need improved rail transport. In other words, the Governor did not unilaterally ax rail, the prospect of a high-speed rail nation or the alternative transportation philosophy, he merely axed a project that was threatening to overrun in the order of billions.
What’s more, there are many alternative solutions that are far less complex and carry a smaller price tag. Case in point, transportation advocate and president of the Institute for Rational Urban Mobility George Haikalis has offered his "Hoboken Alternative" as a more cost effective and practical solution, even testifying about it to the New Jersey Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee earlier this year. That proposal capitalized on an already bustling intermodal facility and existing right-of-way.
For his part, Christie has asked transit officials to consider alternative plans for increasing capacity along the busy route. And despite the skip-in-step this may give to rail naysayers, there is no real case here against the importance of improved rail connectivity. But let's have a plan that makes sense before doling out dollars.
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