Tunnel supporters intend to deliver postcards signed by commuters to governor's office
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Commuter Ribhu Kansal signs a postcard to be sent to Gov. Christie in favor of the ARC project this morning. Politicians and civic groups are handing out leaflets at five different NJ Transit stations urging them to speak up in support of the project. In a last-ditch effort to save the endangered trans-Hudson rail tunnel, proponents of the project appeared at train stations around the state this morning handing out literature and appealing to commuters for their support.
With fears that Gov. Chris Christie will announce on Friday that he is killing the project once and for all due to cost concerns, legislators and representatives of planning and mass transit groups who support the project were at New Jersey Transit’s Newark, New Brunswick, Secaucus, Maplewood and Princeton Junction stations starting at 7 a.m. They passed out fliers with assertions including, “Cost overruns are a myth,” intended to undercut the governor’s argument that New Jersey cannot afford to pay for additional costs to the the project.
Commuters had varying opinions, depending on their destination.
Jeff Eng, a 38-year-old project manager for a financial firm in Manhattan, who commutes across the Hudson River every day from Scotch Plains, was all for it.
“I would pay more for New Jersey Transit if it meant being on time,” said Eng, waiting on the platform for a delayed train. “More trains, better service.”
But Barbara Bonanno, 62, a business analyst who rides the train from Edison to her job in Newark, said the governor was right.
“I don’t want to be in debt til I’m six feet under,” Bonanno said as she declined a flier on her way out of the station.
The project was originally estimated at $8.7 billion, but is more likely to come in at $11 billion or more, according to the governor, who says he will not put state taxpayers on the hook for costs beyond the state‘s $2.7 billion commitment to the project.
The project would double NJ Transit’s morning peak capacity into New York to 90,000 passengers, which proponents say is desperately needed to keep up with demand and unclog existing service. Other benefits would include short-term construction jobs and long-term economic growth, rising property values near train lines, and quicker, more frequent, and more direct commutes.
After declaring two weeks ago that the project was dead, Christie granted a two-week review period at the request of federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to look into alternative funding and other means of moving forward with the project.
Tunnel supporters from Environment New Jersey, New Jersey Future, the Regional Plan Association and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign intend to deliver the signed postcards to the governor’s office in Trenton on Thursday. By 8 a.m., about 50 commuters had signed the postcard at Newark Penn Station, where Assemblyman Albert Coutinho, a Newark Democrat who chairs the Assembly Commerce and Economic Growth Committee, joined tunnel advocates.
“To the extent that the governor says he can’t afford do it, I say we can’t afford not to do it,” Coutinho said. “It’s not irresponsible to ask the Port Authority, to ask the federal government, to pay for more. It is irresponsible to walk away from a project this beneficial to the future of the state of New Jersey.”
Later on, New Jersey’s two U.S. Senators, Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg, both Democrats who helped secure $3 billion in federal funding for the project, were in North Bergen for a rally with union workers who had been looking forward to the 6,000 construction jobs the tunnel was projected to generate over nearly a decade of work.
| Last minute efforts to try to save the multi-billion Hudson River ARC tunnel project |