>ARC rail tunnel’s high price tag, financial impact criticized at transportation forum
Had New Jersey not pulled the plug on it, the ARC commuter train tunnel to New York City would have been a transportation Frankenstein that crippled the state with debt, siphoned money intended for crumbling roads and bridges, and failed to take riders where they wanted to go.
That was the dire scenario described today by state Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson during a Newark Regional Business Partnership transportation symposium.
“The tunnel project was sucking the life out of the rest of the system and the state,” Simpson said from the top floor of One Newark Center, in front of big windows that framed the Manhattan skyline and North Jersey’s extensive network of roads, rails, bridges and runways. “…You’d have to shut the Pulaski Skyway and shut the Wittpenn Bridge.” (Frassinelli, The Star-Ledger)