(The Associated Press circulated the following article by Beth DeFalco on May 10.)
TRENTON, N.J. — Trying to show that plans to build a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River are not just a pipe dream, state officials on Monday outlined plans to help get the Trans-Hudson Express passenger rail tunnel back on track.
“If we are wise, by 2009 there will be a shovel in the ground,” Gov. Jon S. Corzine told some 700 transportation officials and construction industry professionals Wednesday at the annual Governor’s Transportation Conference.
New Jersey Transit executive director George Warrington said he hoped a construction management contract would be awarded by 2007 with a groundbreaking eyed for 2009.
“We must build a tunnel and we must build it now,” Warrington said.
If built, the proposed Trans-Hudson Express tunnel, known as the “THE,” would immediately double rail capacity into and out of New York, meet NJ Transit’s needs for at least 20 years, and help support development along the west side of Manhattan as well as in New Jersey, he said.
Specifically, Warrington said the plan would more than double the number of trains traveling in between New Jersey and New York from 23 an hour _ or one every 2.5 minutes _ up to 50 trains an hour.
Corzine said he was “absolutely committed” to the $6 billion tunnel project, of which New Jersey is committing $500 million from its Transportation Trust Fund.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is looking to contribute between $1 billion to $2 billion to the project, but hasn’t settled on a final amount.
“It’s more than just a tunnel. It’s the George Washington Bridge of this generation,” Port Authority chairman Anthony Coscia said.
However, the rail project is competing for federal money with a proposed rail link between Kennedy Airport and midtown Manhattan that New York Gov. George Pataki is pushing.
On Wednesday New York Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer joined New Jersey Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez in writing to U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta urging financial backing for the project.
“Without timely completion of the THE Tunnel, our region’s economic health will be at risk. Traffic congestion will slow the region to a halt and our economy will be literally choked,” the senators wrote.
The New Jersey Alliance for Action, a construction lobby, announced that it has formed a bistate coalition to promote construction of the project.
As proposed, the tunnel would begin just west of Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen and continue under Union City and Weehawken, extending two tracks to a new station under 34th Street in Manhattan between Sixth and Eighth avenues.