Trump Budget Threatens Gateway Project

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President Trump's proposed Fiscal Year 2018 budget would cause a major setback to plans for a long-stalled Gateway rail project connecting New Jersey and Manhattan, lawmakers and transportation advocates warned Wednesday.

The White House's spending plan would end the $2.3 billion per year federal New Starts program, which is slated to finance half of the estimated more than $20 billion project to add two rail tunnels under the Hudson River. A bipartisan group of state senators and transit leaders held a press conference at Newark Penn Station to emphasize the importance of the New Starts funding, saying it would delay the planned replacement of the Portal swing bridge over the Hackensack River that is key component for the first stage of the Gateway project. The federal government is slated to in kick in half the funding for the tunnels through New Starts with New York and New Jersey splitting the remaining costs.

"The proposed elimination of the New Starts program poses an existential threat to the Gateway program and at the very least it will cause months and months of delays," said Caren Turner, a commissioner for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is leading financial efforts for the project.

Mark Lohbauer, New Jersey director for the Regional Plan Association, noted that is just one of the trail Hudson River tunnels were forced to close, train traffic between New Jersey and Manhattan would be reduced from 24 trains an hour to six. The existing tunnels suffered severe seawater damage from Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 causing service to shut down for five days. The Port Authority has estimated a $100 million daily cost to the nation in transportation-related impacts and productivity losses if the tunnels utilized by roughly 200,000 commuters were forced to shut down for just a 24-hour period.

"For a president who wants to be known as the infrastructure president, it is indeed unfortunate that the Trump administration budget includes scores of billions of dollars to the defense budget while transportation is forced to the back of the train or the bus to conduct bake sales to raise desperately needed funds," Len Resto, chairman of the Association of Railroad Passengers of New Jersey, said at the press conference.

New Jersey Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, said the New Starts funding is also critical for a planned extension of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line into Bergen County. She said New Jersey was slated to receive at least $300 million in federal funding under New Starts for the estimated $1 billion project. Without this federal support, the state would be forced to fund the project through its Transportation Trust Fund at the expense of other priorities.

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Infrastructure Transportation industry New York New Jersey
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