Senators Call on Government To Help Fund City-Jersey Rail Link

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The New York Sun

Downtown business leaders are hopeful that a proposed $6 billion rail tunnel from Midtown Manhattan to New Jersey will not compete for funding with another $6 billion project, the proposed railroad linking Lower Manhattan to JFK Airport.

Yesterday, Senators Schumer and Lautenberg called on the federal government to pick up half the tab on the rail link between Manhattan and New Jersey – a project known as the “Trans-Hudson Express.”

The new rail line, which would run from Secaucus, N. J., to an area near Penn Station, has received broad support from elected officials on both sides of the Hudson River, who say that two new tracks and a new terminus in Midtown will double train capacity, relieve strain on an overcrowded Penn Station, and improve access to and from New Jersey, the fastest-growing region for commuters to the city.

“Right now, getting into Manhattan from New Jersey is a nightmare,” Mr. Schumer said yesterday at a press event at Penn Station.

He said that the region will “choke” unless mass transit access is improved to New Jersey, as well as to New York’s Rockland and Orange counties. The proposed link would be built with $3 billion of federal funds, and between $1 billion and $2 billion from the Port Authority, a bi-state agency, and the state of New Jersey. Construction could begin by 2009.

Local leaders and urban planners are loath to pit the tunnel against the $6 billion rail link to JFK Airport, which was spearheaded by Governor Pataki after September 11, 2001, and is aimed at improving “one-seat” train access to downtown Manhattan from the airport and parts of Long Island.

Mr. Pataki is currently lobbying the federal government to allow the state to use $2 billion in unused tax benefits awarded after the terrorist attacks. Mr. Schumer has been a forceful advocate in Washington for that financing.

Critics have said the downtown link is not as beneficial as some other prospective infrastructure improvements, including the Trans-Hudson Express; the creation of a Long Island Rail Road link to Grand Central Terminal from Penn Station; a new Tappan Zee Bridge, and the Second Avenue subway.

Although the two rail links do not currently compete for funding from the same source, such competition might surface in the future if both projects keep moving forward. Further, it is still unclear if the next governor of New York will be as supportive of the JFK link after Mr. Pataki leaves office at the end of the year.

The president of the Partnership for New York, Kathryn Wylde, said she supports both projects, and hopes that the amount of federal funding available to New York will increase enough to accommodate both.

“There is obviously a finite pot, but as we recognize the importance of public transportation and public infrastructure on future economic growth, I think there will be an increased commitment,” Ms. Wylde said. “While this is primarily a New Jersey initiative, the fact is it’s critically important to the New York City economy.”

The president for the Alliance for Downtown New York, Eric Deutsch, said support for the Trans-Hudson Express does not mean that enthusiasm for the Lower Manhattan project has diminished.

“More recent attention to that project is not necessarily detrimental to long standing support by political and business leaders for a rail link to Lower Manhattan,” Mr. Deutsch said.

He said such a link is critical to making recent public and private investments in downtown successful. He said that better transportation would increase demand for downtown office space and increase the area’s competitiveness.


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