http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704422204576130673174593178.html
Amtrak's Plan For New Tunnel Gains Support
LISA FLEISHER and ANDREW GROSSMAN
Amtrak will spend $50 million to study a new Hudson River tunnel project expected to cost
The two-tunnel Gateway project, part of a larger Amtrak plan for high-speed rail along the Northeast corridor, has been in the works for a few years but was fast-tracked after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie canceled a similar rail project. The Obama administration has made high-speed rail a priority, and New Jersey's senators said they would try to snag money left on the table by Midwest governors who rejected projects.
Gateway would be less beneficial to commuters than the canceled Access to the Region's Core, or ARC, project, because its primary goal is to speed long-distance trains between New York and destinations like Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The extra capacity for commuter trains is an ancillary benefit. As with ARC, Gateway is expected to create jobs and boost real-estate values.
Major obstacles remain. It's unclear where the money would come from. Amtrak said it is looking for private-sector partners, and one of its commissioners said the train company would "put a significant part of its capital resources" into Gateway.
Mr. Christie, a Republican, said there was no New Jersey money available today, but he would consider contributing to a fair plan for the project. One of his complaints about ARC was what he called a lack of funding from New York, though the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was paying about one-third of its cost. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," he said. "No one's come to me yet asking for any money."
Mr. Christie seemed to delight in the Amtrak proposal, saying it reinforced his reasoning for canceling ARC in October and resolved several of his complaints, such as a bigger federal role. At the time, rail advocates said the governor's decision set the region back a generation.
"A generation turns out to be three months," Mr. Christie quipped on Monday. "Sometimes to make real change happen you have to stand up and be counted and make the tough decisions. And if I had been intimidated by all the rhetoric from all the folks who were shooting at us at the time, the taxpayers of the state of New Jersey would be on the hook for untold billions of dollars."
New Jersey's own estimates put ARC at $8.7 billion, but the Federal Transit Administration said it believed the project would cost between $9.8 billion and $12.7 billion, with the balance in New Jersey's lap, not including a necessary upgrade to a related rail bridge.
Amtrak's $13.5 billion estimate includes $2 billion for the bridge renovations.
The new proposal was hailed by the same planners and mass-transit advocates who were dismayed by Mr. Christie's decision to cancel ARC. They see it as a way to solve the same problems that tunnel would have helped alleviate without requiring Mr. Christie's approval.
"Clearly what we've discovered is that New Jersey Transit and the current regime isn't going to become the solution," said Mitchell Moss, the director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at New York University. "This is the ideal kind of debate that we should be having."
The Amtrak proposal would be necessary even if a proposed cross-Hudson extension to the No. 7 subway line proceeds, officials said.
"If you're taking a train from Washington to Boston, you're not going to get off the train in Secaucus, N.J., get on a New York City subway, take the subway into New York City and get back on another train," said Anthony Coscia, Amtrak board member and former chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. "They're different projects."
That idea originated with Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration and is still under consideration. The city is spending $250,000 on an outside firm and New Jersey Transit is giving in-kind man-hours. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it's looking at the idea, but has not endorsed it. No other transit agency is backing it, and it has received a cool reception from public officials on the east side of the Hudson.
The idea of improving service on the Northeast Corridor has prominent supporters on both sides of the aisle in Washington, including the new Republican chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Florida Rep. John Mica.
In seeking private partners for the project, Amtrak was giving a nod to Mr. Mica, who remains skeptical and has said he'd like to have a private company involved in running high-speed rail. Amtrak is subsidized and wholly owned by the federal government.
Part of the plan would involve building a new annex on the block immediately to the south of Penn Station. That could encounter resistance from preservationists, who point to three buildings there that are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Among them are a Napolean LeBrun-designed 1872 Catholic Church and the original powerhouse for Penn Station. If Amtrak wanted to take that block and knock those buildings down, it would likely need to show that it doesn't have alternatives.
"There would be details to consider in their alternative plan, including the implications of building Penn Station South," said Vin Cipolla, president of the Municipal Art Society of New York. "But major, sustainable infrastructure improvements are essential for the continued prosperity and livability of both New Jersey and New York."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he supported another tunnel, in theory.
"It gets people coming into New York City to shop and to work there," he said. "The question is who's going to pay for it. Is it practical? And at least they're trying to do it."
—Michael Howard Saul contributed to this article.
Write to Andrew Grossman at [email protected]
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