Ex-Daily Show Writer Supports Gateway Rail Tunnel Project Under Hudson River: VIDEO

A local advocacy group has enlisted a former writer for “The Daily Show” in its quest to push approval of the proposed Gateway Rail Tunnel Project under the Hudson River.

Earlier this month, Common Good, a nonpartisan government reform coalition, released a three-minute animated video created by Alex Marino, a former writer for Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” The video underscores “the need to prevent unnecessary financial and environmental costs from delay of the project,” the organization stated in a news release.

According to Common Good:

“The Gateway Rail Tunnel Project is a $24 billion infrastructure plan to alleviate a critical bottleneck on the Northeast Corridor rail line (Washington, DC to Boston). It will create two new tunnels between New Jersey and Penn Station in New York City, rebuild capacity on the New Jersey approaches to the Hudson, and add platform and station capacity within Penn Station.”

The group continues:

“The existing rail connection between New Jersey and Penn Station consists of a pair of 105-year-old tunnels just south of the Lincoln Tunnel. These rail tunnels, which serve both Amtrak and NJ Transit trains, were already in need of repair when they were badly damaged in 2012 by millions of gallons of seawater from Superstorm Sandy… With a project the size of Gateway, time is not just money, but lots of money. As set forth in the report, when compared to an 18-month process to finish review and permitting, a three-year permitting timetable would increase taxpayer cost of the project by over $3 billion, and a further two-year delay would increase costs by almost $10 billion. Another two years would raise costs by more than $13 billion. The environmental consequences would also be enormous, if the existing tunnels have to be closed for safety reasons before the new tunnels are completed.”

Learn more about the Gateway Project here.

Learn more about the Hudson Tunnel Project here.

Photo/Video: Common Good

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