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National Association of Railroad Passengers: www.narprail.org
To New York Governor David Paterson and New Jersey Governor John CorzineApril 9, 2008
The Honorable Jon S. Corzine
The Honorable David Paterson
RE: Proposed $7.6 Billion Hudson River Rail Tunnel Project Dear Governors Corzine and Paterson: This is a matter of extreme urgency: the question of how to build new rail tunnels without leaving New York City’s Pennsylvania Station (NYP) as vulnerable as it is now—heavily dependent on two, century-old Hudson River tunnels. The current plan (“Access to the Region’s Core”) is to construct two new tunnels which would not connect to NYP and would terminate under 34th Street near NYP. The National Association of Railroad Passengers endorses the general effort to increase railroad capacity between New Jersey and Manhattan, and appreciates the tremendous amount of work that has gone into the effort to provide this expanded rail capacity. I testified at the April 1 New Jersey Transit hearing in New York City in favor of restoring to the plans the track connection between new and existing tunnels in Manhattan. This would let intercity trains—and future “cross-New York City” commuter train services such as Trenton-Stamford and Meadowlands-Connecticut—access these new tunnels. This connection also would create the redundancy and operational flexibility that NYP badly needs. As now configured, the project will forever preclude intercity trains from using the new tunnels, meaning that intercity service will be paralyzed should the century-old tunnels close for any reason. NJT removed the above-referenced track connection from the project during the past year due, apparently, to concerns about the impact on certain land-owners, the new Hudson River Park and the Hudson River Bulkhead. We think those concerns are dwarfed by issues of security, redundancy and transportation choices, and demand opposition to the unacceptable concept of spending $7.6 billion to create a dead-end tunnel. Such a project would leave NYP and Amtrak’s entire Northeast Corridor spine just as vulnerable as it is today--dependent on just two 100-year-old Hudson tunnels. Loss of those tunnels for any reason would mean the end of intercity service between New York and Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, while crippling New Jersey Transit service by forcing its consolidation into the proposed new station. New York City is the top location in the U.S. in terms of opportunity to replace short-distance air travel with trains. Clearly, it is not acceptable for New Jersey and New York to advance a $7.6 billion project which provides no new intercity trans-Hudson rail capacity and precludes the possibility of providing such capacity in the future. In a letter made public today, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly expressed concerns about security at NYP, calling the facility the “single most critical transit hub in the United States.” A key security priority for this hub should be to eliminate the vulnerability associated with its dependence on two 100-year-old tunnels. Even if those tunnels remain functional, the conflict between maintenance needs and growing weekend and off-peak travel demand will highlight how poorly this planned new tunnel will serve the public, terminating as now designed in a “deep cavern” station well below 34th Street. We appreciate the difficulties inherent in any major construction project in Manhattan. We understand that what we suggest might take longer to get done, and may cost more to build. But the costs of not linking the new tunnels with existing NYP far outweigh the technical difficulties and costs of creating the link, which we believe have been overstated. Fifty, or even 20 years from now, no one will care whether the new tunnels opened in 2017 or a few years later. But they will care about what those tunnels do--and they will care passionately if the existing tunnels are ever shut down. We can get the right solution if you, the states’ governors, agree, and use your considerable influence over the relevant agencies to make sure that the needed track connection is created, for the benefit of today’s riders and those in the decades to come.
Sincerely,
Ross B. Capon
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