» To Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood

February 18, 2009

The Honorable Ray LaHood
Secretary of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20590

Dear Mr. Secretary:

New Jersey Transit is racing towards investing $9 billion—including over $3 billion in federal funds—in two new Hudson River railroad tunnels.  This “Access to the Region’s Core” (ARC) project has a fatal, but correctable, flaw that cries out for your immediate attention because the window is closing rapidly on one of three possible ways to solve it.

The problem: the new tunnels cannot be used either by Amtrak or the half of NJT’s Manhattan trains that will continue to use New York’s Penn Station (NYP).  This is because the new tunnels will serve only a new, stub-end 34th Street terminal.  A vital track connection between the new tunnels and Penn Station has fallen out of the project in part due to lack of federal leadership reflecting the importance of redundancy and operational flexibility to providing reliable train services.

While protracted negotiations produced two additional peak hour slots for Amtrak when the new tunnels are open, these slots will be worthless whenever service is interrupted in the existing, 1910 vintage tunnels.  Short-lived interruptions due to smoke or disabled trains (to cite two examples) are not uncommon, but a much longer term outage also is possible and should be anticipated in any huge investment such as the ARC project.  Moreover, one of the two existing tunnels is closed for maintenance on weekends and some week-nights, further reducing capacity and increasing vulnerability to delays.  This already conflicts with growing round-the-clock service demands.

Given the huge funding for transportation (and rail in particular) in the economic recovery law, it is unthinkable that federal funds could not be found to address the cost increases that “fixes” to this problem might impose. 

This arguably is a question of security as well as redundancy.  If the existing tunnels are ever taken out of service, access between NYP and the new tunnels could become a life-saving issue in an emergency.  As well, protracted closure of the old tunnels would constitute a security issue in the sense that it would force a significant number of travelers into road and aviation systems that are much more energy-intensive than trains and which in any event already are at capacity. 

We are aware of three possible ways to correct this problem. 

1. Eliminate the 34th Street Terminal, expand NYP by adding platforms and tracks to the south side, and initiate Long Island Rail Road-New Jersey Transit run-through service.
2. Relocate New York’s #7 subway extension five to 12 feet higher to allow building the needed connection without forcing other changes to NJT’s plan.
3. Bring NJT back to their early-2007 design, closer to the surface, which was (and still is) compatible with building the connection.

I write with urgency because the window is closing rapidly on option #2, as we understand the tunnel boring machines for the subway extension may go into the ground within two weeks.  All three options are discussed in more detail in the attachment (see bottom of this web page).

It is critical that that the ARC project provide redundancy and operating flexibility for Amtrak trains and for those NJT trains that will continue to serve NYP.  Particularly given President Obama’s commitment to—and strong bipartisan Capitol Hill support for—high speed rail, it is unthinkable that a project of this size would be undertaken at the heart of the Northeast Corridor without insuring best use of the funds.

In Denver, President Obama said, “We will need to end the culture where we ignore problems until they become full-blown crises…”  Accordingly, if the ARC goes ahead without a rail link to NYP, it will be only a matter of time before an interruption in the old tunnels will cause people to ask, “If the $9 billion project to build new tunnels had been done differently, would a service shutdown have been avoided?”  It will then be clear to everyone that this truly was a case of “ignoring problems until they become full-blown crises.”  Please do everything you can to avoid this outcome. 

Thank you for your prompt consideration.  I am happy to provide more information on request.

Sincerely,

Ross B. Capon
President and CEO

cc:
The Honorable Rahm Emanuel
The Honorable John D. Rockefeller IV
The Honorable Frank R. Lautenberg
The Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison
The Honorable Jim Oberstar
The Honorable John Mica
The Honorable Corinne Brown
The Honorable Bill Shuster
Mr. Richard Sarles, Executive Director, New Jersey Transit
Mr. Chris Ward, Executive Director, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Mr. Elliot Sander, Executive Director, Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Mr. Joseph Boardman, President and CEO, Amtrak

APPENDIX – POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO “FATAL BUT CORRECTABLE FLAW” IN THE ARC PROJECT

(1) Eliminate the 34th Street Terminal, expand NYP by adding platforms and tracks to the south side, and initiate Long Island Rail Road-New Jersey Transit run-through service.

Advantages:
• Should produce a net cost reduction.
• Enables all NJT trains to benefit from access to all four tunnels.
• Eliminates security evacuation concerns associated with NJT’s planned “deep cavern” 34th Street tunnel.
• Maximizes potential for run-through services between Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit which in turn maximizes the capacity of (makes best use of) Penn Station’s tracks and platforms.
• Increases chances of subsequent extension of NJT tracks to Manhattan’s East Side.

Disadvantages: It will take time and hard work to develop a consensus in support of developing Block 780 (New York City’s real estate designation).

(2) Relocate tail track of New York City’s #7 subway extension five to 12 feet higher.

Advantage: Allows construction of the needed connection without making other changes to NJT’s current plan.

Disadvantage: City of New York, sole funder of the #7 extension, apparently is poised to insert tunnel boring machine within two weeks. Since the project is city-funded with no federal funds, it would take high-level intervention to try to persuade Mayor Bloomberg to alter plans, even if the city can be held harmless financially.

(3) Bring NJT back to their early-2007 design, closer to the surface, which was (and still is) compatible with building the connection.

Advantage: No need to stop work on the #7 extension.

Disadvantage: Apparently would increase project costs by $1 billion due to geological issues (lack of “competent rock”) which caused NJT to announce to the public in June, 2007, that this option was being abandoned in favor of going much deeper.

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