TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey’s two U.S senators remain confident that a second rail tunnel will be built beneath the Hudson River for New Jersey Transit and Amtrak trains, a wire service reports.
The project, which has languished on the drawing board for several years, involves burrowing below the Hudson to supplement two existing old-time passageways.
One concept calls for digging a new eight-track station below the 21 existing tracks at New York Penn Station, while another would extend NJ Transit to Grand Central Station, providing direct access to the East Side. A third proposes reconfiguring Penn Station’s tracks to let more trains use the hub as well as midday storage space in Queens.
Transportation officials say it will cost at least $4 billion to double the 20 NJ Transit trains that now run hourly into New York during rush hour, and the project _ depending upon what is included _ could take at least eight to 10 years to complete.
Sen. Robert Torricelli has vowed to get funding for the project, saying the tunnel was his “highest transportation priority,” while Sen. Jon Corzine hopes to have the funding included in the federal budget for fiscal year 2004.
Meanwhile, the tunnel plan is competing with another project aimed at fixing the PATH and subway lines that were devastated in the terrorist attacks. And regional officials are seeking more than $5 billion in federal funds for longer-term plans to develop a Lower Manhattan transit hub that, for the first time, would connect PATH, the subways and local ferry service.
Local transportation officials, though, remain hopeful that the tunnel will be built.
Jeffrey Zupan, senior transportation fellow for the Regional Plan Association group, said the congestion into Manhattan from New Jersey must finally be addressed.
“Don’t tie the two (projects) together,” Zupan told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Monday’s editions. “The need for (the tunnel) was there before 9/11.”