“Built that is with private funding! The Pennsylvania RR built the Hudson River Tunnels for about $3 billion (in today’s dollars). Not only that, they built it, and paid off the debt. Quite a novel idea for today!”
I don’t understand why a two track tunnel and a refurbishment of the existing tunnel would cost twice what the original tunnel cost and NY/NJ would need the government to cover 50% of the cost. That’s absolutely ridiculous.
Even the dim-witted New York Times pointed out how tunnel costs in NYC are more than double what agencies across the world pay, even when you factor in healthcare and other non-construction costs that are tied to the project. The Port Authority, NJ Transit, and NY MTA are simply poor managers of projects and there is no economic incentive for them to control costs. With all three agencies having a (financial) stake in the Gateway project (and the Port Authority isn’t running trains in Penn Station, yet Amtrak is), there is so much bloat that any achievement is regarded as a miracle.
They’re nearly 8 years late on connecting the LIRR to Grand Central, well, over budget, and the actual tunnel that goes under the East River was completed over 30 years ago. If they continue to use the tax payers as a piggy bank with no accountability for their spending, then they will only finish projects when there is political will for them wasting too much money.
Trump is right to tie their obvious waste to a project that the country actually needs.
If NY and NJ are going to spend the money like NYC is doing on their subway projects, they don’t need a penny of our tax dollars:
That was post on Free Republic earlier in the week. The 25% share that New York says it is will to pay for the AMTRAC boondoggle would cover the entire project cost, if done honestly.