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» Letter to Gov. Christie on Hudson TunnelsJanuary 26, 2010 The Honorable Chris Christie Dear Governor Christie: Congratulations on your election, and thank you very much for asking your team to take a “complete look” at New Jersey Transit’s Hudson River tunnels project. We are optimistic that this can lead to a “re-set” of the project. While we agree there is a desperate need for more track capacity under the Hudson, we think the current design is seriously flawed. This two-page letter summarizes our concerns. Some supporting documents are enclosed and are listed on the sheet that follows this letter. 1. The proposed new Hudson River tunnels are the rail “project of a century” and will define future intercity and commutation patterns in the NY/NJ region. At $10.4 billion, they are the costliest infrastructure in the state’s history. As planned, this huge investment will not provide operational interchangeability between the old and new tunnels for NJT or Amtrak trains during short- and possible long-term closures of the existing, century-old tunnels. In June 2007, plans for a key track connection were removed from the project. This would have linked the new tunnels with New York Penn Station. Under the current plan, whenever the old tunnels are closed, the one-half of NJT’s Manhattan trains that will continue to use the old tunnels to Penn Station—as well as all Amtrak intercity service—would be paralyzed. 2. Amtrak will be unable to use the new tunnels. Seeing no political support for restoring the Penn Station connection, Amtrak and NJT on February 11, 2009, concluded an agreement that advances the flawed project. 3. Due to proximity of Water Tunnel #1 beneath Sixth Avenue, the dead-end “deep cavern” terminal will not even have storage tracks. Their removal from the plans in October 2008 means that, once a train enters the station, no other train will be able to occupy that track until the first train has reversed and departed. Experts have questioned whether NJT can achieve their projected level of train operations. 4. NJT claims that tracks eventually could be extended from the planned 34th Street terminal to Manhattan’s east side. This remains undocumented. NJT asserts that some future New York City water commissioner would relax the current prohibition on construction proximate to Water Tunnel #1, although we are aware of no written guarantee of this. Moreover, there is no guarantee that, even if the water commissioner did grant this permission, funding would be available during the resulting window of opportunity for construction. 5. Two obvious solutions to consider are: 6. The original Hudson River tunnels Major Investment Study included consideration of that GCT connection, but—in spite of requests from public officials including State Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean Jr.—NJT has steadfastly refused to release anything besides a 31-page Summary Report to support its decision to proceed with what experts widely view as a deeply flawed project. In the interest of governmental transparency, the 1,600-page background documentation must be released to the public which funded it. 7. As one possible way forward, we suggest establishment of an independent review committee to examine ways to provide better accessibility for passengers, permit the tracks eventually to be extended to Manhattan’s East Side and reduce the cost of the instant project. Thank you for considering our views. Sincerely, Ross B. Capon |
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