TRENTON-Confirming earlier published reports, Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez and Amtrak have announced a proposal for a similar link between Secaucus and New York City that would increase NJ Transit rail capacity by 65%.
Amtrak is prepared to spend $50 million to begin preliminary engineering and design on the project, called Gateway, which would add 13 NJ Transit trains per peak hour and eight Amtrak trains per peak hour into New York City. The announcement comes just months after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie killed a plan to build an additional New Jersey Transit rail tunnel under the Hudson River. The earlier plan, called the ARC tunnel, did not include Amtrak.
“New Jersey is facing a transportation crisis,” Sen. Lautenberg said in a statement. “Our commuters are fed up with train delays that make them late to work and endless traffic that traps them on our highways when they want to be home with their families. When the ARC Tunnel was cancelled, it was clear to me that we couldn’t just throw up our hands and wait years to find another solution. I immediately went to work looking for new ways to get cars off our roads and expand rail access from New Jersey neighborhoods to New York City office buildings.” He added that Amtrak answered the call and is spearheading a project that will help New Jersey commuters and also expand intercity and high-speed rail on the Northeast Corridor.
Though the ARC tunnel was already under construction, Christie killed the project in October citing concerns that the cost would exceed the proposed $8.7 billion (of which New Jersey was to pay $2.7 billion). The new proposal would cost $10 billion, and may qualify for federal funding as a high-speed rail link, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“The Gateway Project is essential to the future growth and economic development of the entire northeast region and will provide for greater capacity, connectivity and convenience for Amtrak and commuter passengers in the heart of Manhattan,” said Amtrak president and CEO Joe Boardman. “It is a critical first step that we can take now to bring 220 mph Amtrak high-speed service to the Northeast Corridor.”
Unlike the ARC tunnel, which would have ended under 34th street, Gateway would connect to new tracks at New York Penn Station. The plan also calls for a total replacement and expansion of the 100-year-old Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River between Kearny and Secaucus, as well as other infrastructure improvements. Plans call for construction to be completed in 10 years, assuming funding comes through. “New Jersey always rises above challenges--and today’s announcement continues us along that track,” Sen. Menendez said. We are on a path to create good-paying jobs and move people and goods more quickly,”
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