$13B Gateway Tunnel In Jeopardy; Feds Trash Obama-Era Deal

Is the Gateway Tunnel project dead? And if so, what will it mean for New Jersey and New York train riders facing persistent delays on their daily commutes?

Those are two of the questions that many people who ride the rails between the two states were left wondering over the New Year's weekend after Trump-era Federal Transit Administration (FTA) officials effectively put the kibosh on the funding plan for a massive, $13 billion project known as the “Gateway Tunnel.”

The plan would create a two-track tube for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains under the Hudson River in an attempt to alleviate a critical bottleneck on the Northeast Corridor rail line. The existing rail connection between New Jersey and Penn Station consists of a pair of century-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.

• See related article: N.J Rail Tunnel Project Would Cost $13B - And It May Never Happen

In 2015, the Obama-era Department of Transportation, which oversees the FTA, gave a thumbs-up regarding the proposed funding arrangement to governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie, now-Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and U.S. Sen. Corey Booker, Crains New York reported.

But on Friday, FTA officials stated in a letter to governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie that their plan to split the cost of the project 50/50 with the U.S. government – partly through federal loans - was null and void, Crains stated.

“There is no such agreement," wrote FTA Deputy Administrator K. Jane Williams. "We consider it unhelpful to reference a non-existent 'agreement' rather than directly address the responsibility for funding a local project where nine out of 10 passengers are local transit riders."

However, FTA officials left the door open to another possible underwriting arrangement, provided that it doesn’t include a federal loan, Crains reported.

The FTA’s announcement comes just months after Amtrak repairs at New York Penn Station caused an uproar among local commuters during the “Summer of Hell,” when Amtrak and NJ Transit saw recent heavy fire for repeated delays and other maintenance and infrastructural problems.

• See related article: Ex-Daily Show Writer’s Video Shows Why The Gateway Rail Tunnel Project Is Needed

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Photo: Eric Kiefer (Hoboken Terminal, 2017)