NJ gov. agrees to reconsider tunnel cancellation

hosted ^ | Oct 8 | ANGELA DELLI SANTI

[JoeProBono]

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Under pressure from the Obama administration, Republican Gov. Chris Christie agreed Friday to rethink his decision to cancel construction of a $9 billion rail tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City.

Christie, a rising star in the GOP with a reputation as a fearless protector of the taxpayers' money, announced on Thursday that he was pulling the plug on the project because of runaway costs - a decision that led to an outcry from Democrats who said it would cost the state thousands of badly needed construction jobs and cripple New Jersey's long-term economy.

[JoeProBono]

[Sacajaweau]

Can you say Union Only jobs??

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Another so-called conservative goes along to get along.

[rfp1234]

The Feds can make up the lost jobs by funding an alternative major make-work project (digging up Jimmy Hoffa from beneath Giants Stadium).

[pogo101]

Got a visit from the mob?

I tend not to think that’s what this is. Christie’s probably been threatened by mob goons for a long time now.

[Enchante]

Frank R. Lautenberg station?????

screw that, $10-15 billion in taxpayer money to honor that mendacious twit?

[Huck]

Who's your daddy?? That's right. You guys report back to Christie in a coupla weeks and he'll think about it.

[curiosity]

I hate to be the contrarian, but a tunnel like this might make sense.

Millions of people live in New Jersey and work in Manhattan, and the only pratical way for them to get to work is by train. If New Jersey makes that commute easier, it can conceivably attract more people who work in New York to move to Jersey, which in turn will bring more money into the state, both in terms of tax revenue and sales to local business. Back when I was working in New York, I briefly considered moving to Jersey, but I decided against it because of the commute time.

Hence it's entirely plausible that this project would make sense from a cost-benefit standpoint, though I repeat, it is impossible to know without running some numbers.

[Maverick68]

Perhaps Christie wanted to shake it up and scare the Hell out of those crooks involved with the project...

[JoeProBono]

[Past Your Eyes]

If I never go to Penn Station again it will be too soon. Pure chaos.

[jersey117]

Frank R. Lautenberg station?????

We already have one of those!

[Paladin2]

Take the work out of Manhattan. Taxes are less in NJ anyway.

[Psycho_Bunny]

If it’s “10 billion” and government is involved, you can be damn sure it’s actually 5 but will end up 15.

[JoeProBono]

Brooklyn Bridge was led by Johnny Maestro, the former frontman of the Crests. The group was formed on Long Island in 1968 from the ashes of local rivals the Del-Satins

[curiosity]

Not sure I get the point of that screen shot. Care to elaborate?

[JoeProBono]

No

[hecht]

A good rail tunnel is a must, but if you check the ARC website you'll find that instead of widening the existing tunnels to have 4 lines, this is a totally new tunnel which is much deeper and requires not only a new deep station at a huge cost, but the new station is actually a terminus. This means that trains from long island, upper NY State, and New England can not use it.
This means that despite the plans to enlarge PennStation with the Farley building, a brand new hugely expensive station 150 feet below has to be built and because of water tunnel #1 cant even connect with Grand Central.

[Gay State Conservative]

Message to Governor Christie...before you give the green light just think..."Boston"...."Big Dig".