NJ Transit Awaiting Government Environmental Reviews To Apply For Funding Of New Rail Tunnel

Reprinted From : http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE5084ON20090109

Final hurdle for NJ tunnel project to clear soon

NEW YORK (Reuters) - NJ Transit is expecting the U.S. government to complete environmental reviews for its planned Hudson River passenger train tunnel in the near term, which would clear the final hurdle to allow it apply for needed funding.

The NJ Transit system and the New York-New Jersey Port Authority are seeking $3 billion in federal funding for the $8.7 billion project, Paul Wyckoff, a NJ Transit spokesman, said late Thursday.

The new tunnel is expected to be operational in 2017. It would bring 25 trains an hour from New Jersey into Pennsylvania Station in midtown Manhattan.

The new system will ease the pressure on the existing tunnel, which can handle only 23 trains an hour, Wyckoff said. A sharp rise in demand for the service has led to frequent delays.

A Federal Transit Administration spokesman said it was working "to advance the project into the final design stage." The environmental review is an interim step that will detail the agreement between the federal agency and the project sponsors.

President-elect Barack Obama has highlighted upgrades of the nation's roads, bridges and transit systems in his economic revival plan, and states and cities around the nation are all eager to have their projects "shovel-ready."

The federal government on Tuesday approved a $5.2 billion proposal for a commuter rail from Washington D.C. to Dulles International Airport, clearing the way for a 60-day congressional comment period on $900 million in rail construction grants to states in the region.

Once the project has been completed, work will begin to provide public transportation from the nation's capital to its major airport, said a spokesman for Virginia's Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine.

"You'll start seeing some dirt being moved and construction will start pretty quickly," spokesman Gordon Hickey told Reuters.

Some work has already begun with the $160 million allocated by his state, he said.

(Reporting by Joan Gralla in New York and Lisa Lambert in Washington, D.C; Editing by Leslie Adler and Dan Grebler)