Posted on 10/08/2010 5:08:53 PM PDT by Willie Green
TRENTON, N.J. — Gov. Chris Christie pulled back Friday on plans to cancel a nearly $9 billion rail tunnel linking New Jersey and Manhattan, agreeing after meeting with the U.S. transpiration secretary to listen to other options for one of the nation's largest public works projects.
Secretary Ray LaHood met with Christie for nearly an hour at the New Jersey Statehouse a day after the governor decided to scrap the project dubbed Access to the Region's Core, or ARC, a move he said was aimed to protect the long-range financial interests of state taxpayers.
"Gov. Christie and I had a good discussion this afternoon, during which I presented a number of options for continuing the ARC tunnel project," LaHood said. "We agreed to put together a small working group from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the office of New Jersey Transit Executive Director Jim Weinstein that will review these options."
The team will report back to the Republican governor, a rising star within his party for assuming the mantle of protector of taxpayer money, within two weeks.
Christie's spokeswoman, Maria Comella, said that the wind down on the project would continue, and the governor reiterated that he believed the project remained financially unfeasible.
"The fact that the ARC project is not financially viable and is expected to dramatically exceed its current budget remains unchanged," Christie said in a statement. He added, though, that LaHood "presented several options to potentially salvage a trans-Hudson tunnel project."
The project had been in the works for about 20 years. Currently, NJ Transit commuter trains and Amtrak cars share a century-old two-track tunnel beneath the Hudson River. The new tunnel would add two more tracks, more than doubling the number of NJ Transit trains that could pass under the river.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
NY/NJ already have lots of trains....
I was hoping the money would go somewhere else that needs 'em.
Willie, this is the one place that might actually use trains. The places you want them won’t even use them.
“The fact that the ARC project is not financially viable and is expected to dramatically exceed its current budget remains unchanged,” Christie said.
If Christie goes ahead with the plan, then he will be justly known as a RINO. Were I to live in New Jersey, I would certainly not want to pay funding which is disproportionally larger than the amount I use the train. What this train would actually do is encourage people to go blow their money in the sinful mecca known as New York City, when people would be more likely to contribute to the New Jersey economy with no train in existence.
Noting the resounding failure of AMTRAK, Christie would do well to ignore lunatics like Krugman on this issue, and instead work for either a free market solution, or no solution at all.
Criminy... now we have a department of leaf botany?
No to government trains! They are nothing but a black hole for taxpayer money. I have the horrible feeling that the options being considered are making the rest of us in other states pay for this boondoggle.
Government projects always fail.
Christie agreed to nothing....
The people-flow is from New Jersey into NYC during the day, and it brings a boatload of money back into New Jersey with the commuters at the end of the day. The tunnels have been a bottleneck for decades and whenever there is an incident -- for example a train breaks down in a tunnel -- the commute turns into a nightmare. I don't have any problem with the tunnel -- I have a problem with New Jersey being on the hook for a large amount of money that it doesn't have.
You have to realize how truly stupid these academic imbeciles are. They have never worked or been in business. For example Krugman et al who think we should spend another trillion on huge construction projects. These idiots are so stupid they think of large construction projects as the way the Pharos built the Pyramids. Nowadays things are built by machines with a few highly skilled workers pulling levers and pushing button.
Maybe he’s just a fantastic negotiator. He’s got the feds running in, begging to pay NJ’s share now.
Maybe he’s just a fantastic negotiator. He’s got the feds running in, begging to pay NJ’s share now.
I sure hope not.
NJ needs to pay their own share, just like everybody else.
We've got plenty of water already, that's the problem. We also have fast catamaran ferries -- 40 minutes between the Bayshore in New Jersey and Wall Street.
Christie is not averse to taking gummint money.
Sickening.
Oh, get a grip.
Of all the rail infrastructure projects in the country, this is probably the one that makes the most economic sense. Tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of New Jersey residents make their living in NYC and you can't just drive there.
Wait until it plays out and see what kind of a deal is struck (if any) before you brand Christie a traitor.
It sounds easier to move the jobs to the people.
Cassatt and His Vision - Half a Billion Dollars Spent in Ten Years to Improve a Single Railroad -- The End of a Fourty-Year Effort to Cross the Hudson
I’m just a dumb girl, but from the article -
-Officials have said the tunnel would create 6,000
construction jobs
and add at least 40,000 new jobs after completion.
If Christie were to divert money to the state transportation
fund, that could also create jobs, depending on the projects. -
How big would this thing be that it would create
40,000 jobs after completion?
Can I call BULL$$!+???
A project like this would be a huge coupe for
the unions who would be the only ones (I assume)
to work the project. My 1st thought was that Mr C
got a call from the Unions via the TS.
Mr C - please come out of this honorably.
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