Hudson Rail Tunnels Have Up to 20 Years Left, Amtrak Says

[deminks]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-05-05/hudson-rail-tunnels-have-up-to-20-years-left-amtrak-s-ceo-says

Century-old rail tunnels beneath the Hudson River have at most two decades of service remaining and Amtrak lacks funding to replace them, according to Joseph Boardman, president and chief executive officer of Amtrak.

“I’m being told we’ve got something less than 20 years before we have to shut one or two down,” Boardman, the top executive at the U.S. national rail operator, said last month at a conference of the Regional Plan Association in New York.

“I don’t know if that something less than 20 is seven, or some other number,” he said at the April 25 event, in remarks reported yesterday on Capital New York’s website.

(snip)

Christie’s decision to halt the Hudson tunnel cost the state $3 billion in federal assistance and, according to the U.S. General Accountability Office, more than 202,000 direct and indirect jobs over a decade.

(end snip)

I think this is a scandal that was never investigated. We are apoplectic over Keystone and the 2000 temporary jobs it might create over 2 years, nevermind the rise in gas prices and the zero increase in US supply.

How about this project which would have created 200,000+ jobs over 9 years?

Does Christy have a fetish for traffic jams?

[onehandle]

1. Christie is the Ahnold of the East Coast.

Voted in by those who thought he would be 'entertaining.'

[truedelphi]

4. i think you're mistaken.

Schwartzennegger asked for help from the Federal Government, to the tune of 20 billions of dollars. Obama's "good buddy" Tim Geithner refused him the loan, saying that it would hurt efforts to trim the deficit.

Ahnold is actually to the left of Di Feinstein, and he is basically, on many issues, including liberalizing drug laws, a Republican in name only.

So our state of 37 millions of people, that over the decades has seen only a 73 cent return per dollar we send off to Washington DC, was declined any help by Obama's top economic "adviser.".

Christie is cut from an entirely different cloth altogether.

Oh and BTW, we might have had a chance of not ending up with Ahnold if only the Supreme Dragon Lady, one Senator Di Feinstein, had not hand picked totally non-charismatic people to run against a man who was a box office hit for decades.

[Laxman]

2. This Is A Monumental Problem...

that has gone under the radar. This is a national security issue as well as an economic issue. Rail traffic along the entire east coast narrows down to two tracks between Newark and New York. Its a choke point that relies on century old tunnels that are close to obsolescence. We have an obligation as a generation to fulfill our responsibilities to invest in necessary infrastructure. That generational obligation was set aside so Christie could pull a budget trick to avoid raising any taxes and kick the infrastructure can down the road. The real scandal is that his "electability" was more important than responsible governing. That is a form of corruption. One with a very high price.

[FarCenter]

3. The tunnels that Christie killed were not replacements for the Amtrak tunnels

They would only have served NJ to NYC commuter traffic and dead ended under Macy's. They did not align with the tunnels through Manhattan and to the Sunnyside Yards in Queens where trains continue on to either Long Island or over the bridge again into the Bronx and to New England.

Rail in NYC needs a complete overhaul, including freight rail. Currently there is essentially no freight rail to Long Island and they mostly rely on trucks and barges.