New Jersey-New York Delegation Calls for Hudson River Rail Tunnel Funding

[The Straight Story]

New Jersey-New York Delegation Calls for Hudson River Rail Tunnel Funding

Contact: Lautenberg Press Office [phone]
Thursday, January 8, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Bipartisan members of the New Jersey and New York congressional delegations called for President-elect Obama and Congressional leaders to fund a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River as part of the next economic stimulus bill. In two separate letters, one to the President-elect and another to Congressional leaders, members of the delegations called the Trans-Hudson Mass Transit Tunnel a “ready-to-go” project that will create six thousand construction jobs annually for ten years and nearly fifty thousand permanent jobs in our region.

“When completed this new tunnel will double commuter rail capacity in the New Jersey-New York region, taking 22,000 cars off our roadways every day and reducing greenhouse gases,” the delegation wrote. “With the proper federal investment, projects like the Trans-Hudson Mass Transit will put people to work, spur the economy, and build an infrastructure that will pay dividends for generations.”

The text of the letter to President-elect Obama is below.

The Trans-Hudson Mass Transit Tunnel project is the first new rail tunnel under the Hudson River in 100 years and the largest transit project being designed in the nation. The Federal Transit Administration has ranked the project among the most cost-effective transit projects in the country.

NJ Transit has projected an impact of some 261,000 jobs in total throughout the region during the course of the project. When completed this new tunnel will double commuter rail capacity in the New Jersey-New York region, taking 22,000 cars off our roadways every day and reducing greenhouse gases.

http://lautenberg.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=306494