Trump Wants To Squash Gateway Tunnel, High-Ranking Official Says

President Donald Trump is trying to put the brakes on the Gateway Tunnel, a multi-billion proposed project aimed at relieving the recurring delays that have plagued railroad commuters who cross the Hudson River, according to a high-ranking federal official.

During a House committee hearing Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said that Trump is actively trying to block funding for the project, which would create a two-track tube for Amtrak and NJ Transit trains under the Hudson River in an attempt to alleviate a notorious 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

New Jersey and New York state officials have maintained that in 2015, the Obama-era Department of Transportation - which oversees the FTA - gave a thumbs-up regarding a proposed funding arrangement for the plan to governor Andrew Cuomo and former governor Chris Christie, now-Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker.

As part of that alleged agreement, New Jersey and New York pledged to pay for half of the cost, with the federal government matching the other half, partly through loans, state officials said.

However, in December, FTA officials stated in a letter to Cuomo and Christie that their plan to split the cost of the project was just a pipe dream.

"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."

The FTA's announcement came 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: $13B Gateway Tunnel In Jeopardy; Feds Trash Obama-Era Deal

Chao echoed Williams’ assertion about the alleged funding plan for Gateway on Tuesday.

“The president is concerned about the viability of this project and the fact that New York and New Jersey have no skin in the game”, Chao said, responding to a question from U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York about whether Trump is “personally intervening” to kill the project. (Watch the exchange in the below video)

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