President Donald Trump has apparently “terminated” the Hudson River Tunnel project connecting New Jersey and New York City.
The roughly $12 billion Hudson River Tunnel is part of the Gateway Program, a series of improvements on a section of the busy Northeast Corridor between Newark, New Jersey, and New York City. Both Amtrak and NJ Transit use the tunnel, which the Pennsylvania Railroad opened more than 110 years ago.
“Russell Vought is really terminating tremendous numbers of Democrat projects,” Fox 5 in New York City quoted Trump as saying. “Not only jobs, the project in Manhattan, the project in New York. It’s billions and billions of dollars that Schumer has worked 20 years to get. It’s terminated.”
The president was referencing liberal U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer.
The current tunnel, also known as the North River Tunnel, has two tubes, each with a single track, extending about two-and-a-half miles from North Bergen, New Jersey, to Penn Station. The Gateway Program intends to rehabilitate the existing Amtrak-owned tunnel after the new tunnel opens.
As of now, the new tunnel is scheduled to open in 2035. The entire project, which also includes repairing the old tunnel, should wrap up by 2038, officials said.
“Gateway is the most important infrastructure project in the nation,” Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin said in a statement. “President Trump’s surprise ‘termination’ of the project is not only a crude display of power but a reckless betrayal of the commuters, businesses and workers who depend on the Northeast Corridor each and every day.
“These are hardworking families and union workers who, rightfully, expect their government to act in their best interest, especially when their livelihoods and safety are on the line,” Coughlin added. “Bi-partisan and critical infrastructure work that has already begun should not be weaponized. Abandoning this vital project now would erase two decades of progress and the people of our region deserve better.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul lamented the loss of union jobs that would accompany the project’s termination.
“The Gateway Tunnel. This and the Second Avenue Subway have been talked about for decades,” Hochul said on MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes.” “We finally get them over the finish line — $18 billion worth of projects and 15,000 union jobs, good paying union jobs — and they don’t give a damn about them.
“…This is not sticking it to New York. This is the Northeastern corridor,” the governor added. “To make sure that our tunnels are safe, they were damaged by Superstorm Sandy. They’re over 100 years old. We need to replace them because if this system of transportation collapses, the Northeastern economy and the economy of the country collapses. So, why be so shortsighted?”
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