I would disagree that there is lack of demand for additional Hudson tunnels. Spend rush hour at Penn Station or the Port Authority bus terminal and you’ll see what I mean. The real issue is that NJ and NY can’t get their act together but I believe Trump’s infrastructure plan will get that much needed project moving forward. The existing rail tunnels are aging and could fail soon, which would be a nightmare for NJ commuters.
I have it pretty good commuting from Connecticut. Metro North is well run and Grand Central Terminal is a model of efficiency compared to Penn.
Let the US taxpayer bailout NYC? No way!
Part of the reason for that is the fact that Grand Central is a terminal, not a station. Penn has trains coming in and going out from and to other places, both north and south. That is the reason for the Godzilla-movie scenes at every track announcement--they can't let you know till the last minute where your train will be because of delays etc. on the other trains. I don't envy the person with that job.
At Grand Central the empty trains just sit there calmly waiting for you to get on. The rush from five to six p.m. is fun to watch but it is nothing like the track announcement havoc at Penn.
Connecticut is a pretty state. Lots of big homes and streets. If Trump can propose good infrastructure and transportation projects, he could do well in the Northeast in 2020.
There may be issues at those places in NYC, but I don’t know that they are related to traffic from NJ. Friends that ride the rails in from here describe lower ridership than 10 years ago.
NY didn’t want to share revenue for a second bridge (as they do with the GWB), so they built the Tappan Zee Bridge at a point where both sides are in NY - and the river is VERY wide (which brings a whole slew of problems with it). Now they want help repairing/replacing it...