Sweeney Calls for Construction of New Rail Tunnel Between NJ & NYC

sweeneySenate President Steve Sweeney on Wednesday called for the construction of a new tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City under the Hudson River, saying the region’s transportation network could be crippled when the existing tunnels are closed for critically-needed repairs.

On Thursday, the tunnels, completed in 1910, will be 104 years old. Severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy, the century-old tunnels may soon be shut down for as long as a year for repair work, according to Amtrak.

“Thanksgiving weekend is the heaviest travel season of the year so it highlights the deteriorating conditions of the transportation infrastructure,” said Senator Sweeney. “The Amtrak rail tunnels that connect New Jersey and New York City are experiencing the same disrepair as the roads and bridges throughout the state.”

A special report by transportation experts for Amtrak detailed the additional damage to the tunnels caused by Hurricane Sandy flooding. An estimated 450 trains use the tunnels each day.

“The entire Northeast Corridor Rail Line and all the rail lines in northern New Jersey skinny down to a single track in and a single track out under the Hudson River,” said Senator Sweeney. “Built when William Howard Taft was President, these tracks handle 45 million passenger trips a year so problems can create the ultimate bottleneck for regional transportation.”

Amtrak officials say a plan to build the “Gateway” tunnel in advance of the shutdown of the existing facilities would prevent a transportation catastrophe. Senator Sweeney said Governor Christie, Congress, the Port Authority, Amtrak and transportation officials should work together to move quickly to replace the aging trans-Hudson tunnels.

“The widening of the New Jersey Turnpike between exits 9 and 6 has been a major success that has made a real difference for motorists,” said Senator Sweeney. “It shows that smart investments in transportation will create jobs and improve the infrastructure. It is an example of what we can and should be doing.”

Senator Sweeney has toured the state to bring attention to the deteriorating condition of bridges and to press the governor to develop a plan to fund the Transportation Trust Fund. Senator Sweeney says any TTF plan developed by the governor should provide at least $2 billion in annual, dedicated funding and should double the level of support to local transportation needs.

[TLS]

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3 COMMENTS

  1. To wondering : true that unions played an important, even vital, role many years ago in protecting workers from profit hungry bosses who couldn’t care less if the workers dropped dead from bad conditions. HOWEVER, as time went on, they lost sight of their purpose, almost switching roles with the former company bosses: now union bosses became hungrier and hungrier for money and power, and also demanded more and more benefits EVEN at the expense of the “death” of the company which was providing it’s own members with jobs. If any member wanted out of the union because they saw the union bosses cared more about themselves than the members even at the risk of wrecking the company, they were forced to stay in the union and pay their dues. Unions served their purpose but now have become a big problem of their own.

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