The RPA states that the number of commuters traveling daily from the suburbs into Manhattan could grow as much as 34% in the next 25 years, which is way over the capacity of the current system.

NEW YORK CITY—The Regional Plan Association has released a report that calls for the $71.4-billion merger of regional MTA train lines—the Long Island Rail Road, Metro North and New Jersey Transit—to form the Trans-Regional Express, an integrated regional rail network.

The merged regional commuter rail network, named T-REX for short, would take 30-years to complete and require an annual investment of $2.4 billion over and above the investment required by the MTA, New York and New Jersey to fund the controversial $39-billion NEC Future program that includes the Gateway project and the additional tracks five and six between North Brunswick, NJ and Green's Farms, CT, the RPA states in its report.

The T-REX report, released in conjunction with the RPA's fourth regional plan, states the current Metro-North, LIRR and NJ Transit infrastructure was largely built by private railroads more than a century ago and leaves many areas in the New York metro region poorly served or without commuter rail service at all.

Recommended For You

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.

Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

John Jordan

John Jordan is a veteran journalist with 36 years of print and digital media experience.