Yes, again.
The current proposed configuration may have deficiencies and I think running the new tunnels into Penn Station is the superior option. Christie is, I fear, not making a transportation or budgetary decision so much as an opportunistic political determination. By ending this project, Christie becomes a Tea Party and Republican hero. He is also a potential leading candidate for President. This is the shape of things to come.
Gov. Christie to kill Hudson River tunnel for second time | NJ.com.
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Filed under: Passenger Rail Politics, Passenger Rail Transportatio Policy
New Jersey doesn’t have the money to fund this, and unlike the US Government, they can’t print more. I don’t know why that’s so hard for you to understand.
My original comment was in shorthand. I certainly appreciate the budgetary problems. A tunnel running direct to Penn Station is supposedly less expensive. It MIGHT be that the parties could find a way to pay for that version of the project. One element that keeps adding to costs is the constant delays.
We are talking about augmenting a 100 year-old Hudson River rail tunnel and this has been on somebody’s agenda for decades now.
From the political standpoint, it is very much to Christie’s benefit that this project be completely terminated. That makes him look tough and the proper presidential material for Repubs and the Tea Party.
If he were to become president, he would likely cut Amtrak out entirely – oh, except for the N.E. Corridor. The comment about delays being costly is right on target. in 1971, I was on a Southern Office car when the upper level was commenting on SCL’s proposed building of Rice yard, which would then have cost about $20M. SCL deferred, and Crane & Claytor were having a field day of it. Rice Yard was eventually built, some years later at nearly double the $20M estimated in the earlier period — yep, time costs money, unless you are a Republican, then you just keep yapping NO NO NO NO No No NO No No———