(The following article by Patrick McGeehan was posted on the New York Times website on July 27.)
NEW YORK — After years of talking up the need for a second commuter-rail tunnel under the Hudson River, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is ready to make a hefty down payment on a $7.2 billion project.
Port Authority commissioners are scheduled to vote today to authorize spending up to $2 billion on the project, which would include a two-tube tunnel connecting Manhattan and New Jersey and a terminal under 34th Street at the foot of Macy’s flagship store.
Anthony R. Coscia, the chairman of the Port Authority, has said the trans-Hudson tunnel should be the region’s top transportation priority because it would increase capacity on the overcrowded commute to New York City from the fast-growing western suburbs. Until now, the Port Authority has only talked about helping to pay for it without making a firm commitment.
The financial move is critical, the project’s supporters say, because it will allow them to seek billions more from the federal government, having shown a substantial level of local support.
Mr. Coscia said the board would vote on authorizing at least $1 billion for the tunnel, with the intention of including up to $1 billion more in the 10-year capital plan that the Port Authority will adopt later this year. The project, whose main sponsor is New Jersey Transit, the state-run commuter train and bus network, is scheduled to begin construction in 2009 and to be completed by 2016. Its cost is estimated at $7.2 billion, adjusted for inflation over the next 10 years, said George Warrington, the executive director of New Jersey Transit.
“This is clearly a substantial and huge down payment, which allows us to signal to the federal government that up front and well in advance of construction we have already amassed significant financial commitments,” Mr. Warrington said. He said that it was too soon to determine what parts of the project the Port Authority would pay for.
Jon S. Corzine, the governor of New Jersey, has already pledged $500 million for the tunnel from the state’s Transportation Trust Fund. Like Mr. Coscia, Mr. Corzine has been a vocal backer of the trans-Hudson tunnel, first in Washington as a senator and now in Trenton.
The New Jersey officials consider the tunnel a sure thing, but even with a financial commitment from the Port Authority, the project could encounter obstacles. It is one of several multibillion-dollar transportation projects on the drawing boards, including a subway line on Second Avenue, and it will eventually have to compete with some or all of them for federal money.
Not even all the officials of the Port Authority are in agreement that the Hudson tunnel should be first in line for the agency’s money. The vice chairman, Charles Gargano, an appointee of Gov. George E. Pataki of New York, still favors a rail link between Lower Manhattan and the Long Island Rail Road and Kennedy International Airport.
Mr. Gargano said the Hudson tunnel should be one of the Port Authority’s priorities but “not the No. 1.” He added the caution that this was “the beginning of a very long process” and “many things have to happen” before either project can be built.
Mr. Gargano pointed to an impending vote in Congress to authorize the conversion of $1.75 billion in tax credits for use in building the rail link to Kennedy. If the House and Senate approve that conversion soon, he said, “That is certainly a positive for that project.”
Nonetheless, Mr. Coscia said a big commitment to the Hudson tunnel would demonstrate a new spirit of collaboration between the competing interests on the Port Authority board. He said it was time to make decisions based on the potential benefits to the entire region rather than as a division of assets between the two states.
“There seems to be a willingness, clearly, at the Port Authority and among those who control it,” he said, “to allow the Port Authority to resume its historical role of planning major infrastructure projects and not focus on a quid pro quo between the two states of pet projects.”