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If the earliest a new tunnel can be built is 2025, according to Steve Gardner of Amtrak, what happens between now and then if there is a significant system failure, asked state Senator Robert Gordon (D-38), chairman of the Senate Oversight Committee. “I know of no viable alternative,” Gardner told Gordon. (Max Pizarro, Politickernj.com) https://politickernj.com/2015/
JULY 27, 2015, 10:53 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JULY 27, 2015, 10:53 PM
BY HERB JACKSON AND CHRISTOPHER MAAG
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx urged Governor Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday to meet with him in the next two weeks to talk about replacing the century-old Hudson River rail tunnel that is frequently the cause of delays for commuters.
Foxx’s call comes after a week in which state and federal officials traded increasingly harsh words about delays on trains entering and leaving New York City.
In a letter to the two governors obtained by The Record, Foxx recounted how the federal government put up $3 billion for a new NJ Transit tunnel that was begun in 2009, then canceled by Christie in October 2010.
Amtrak, which owns the existing tunnel and Northeast Corridor tracks used by many NJ Transit commuters daily, has proposed the Gateway project, which includes building two new tubes under the river. If Gateway were built and the existing two-track tunnel were overhauled to replace failing electrical systems and structural damage caused by flooding from Superstorm Sandy, rail capacity under the river would eventually be doubled.
Foxx said that Amtrak was in discussions with the Federal Railroad Administration about financing, but that Washington would not bankroll the project by itself.
“Neither Amtrak nor your individual states, acting alone, can replace these tunnels,” Foxx wrote. “It will take all of us working together. To that end, I would like to meet with you within the next two weeks to discuss the project, especially your states’ roles in getting it completed.”
MEIR RINDE | JUNE 16, 2015
But near-insurmountable difficulties remain to be resolved — such as where the requisite $15 billion will come from
Two century-old tunnels that carry Amtrak and NJ Transit trains into New York City
The urgent need for new rail tunnels under the Hudson River is finally getting some serious attention after years of little activity.
At a closely watched summit of transportation leaders in New York last month, a top official from the Obama administration called Amtrak’s proposed Gateway tunnel between northern New Jersey and Manhattan “the most important rail project in the United States.” Peter Rogoff, the acting undersecretary of transportation, said the two states must act immediately to advance a plan, sparking attendees’ hopes that the highly complex, expensive, long-stalled project might finally get underway.
“It was like, ‘Whoa! We finally are hearing it from Washington,’” Martin Robins, the dean of New Jersey transportation experts and a conference participant, said after the meeting. “I wish it had come earlier.”
The sign of possible movement comes five years after Gov. Chris Christie canceledNJ Transit’s ARC (Access to the Region’s Core) tunnel project under the Hudson, citing the project’s potential high cost. It comes two and half years after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the existing, 105-year-old tunnels, raising the prospect of a long shutdown of at least one tunnel for repairs that could cripple rail travel in the near future.
“Closure of that tunnel, and the 50 percent to 75 percent reduction in capacity, would have a disastrous effect on the regional economy. That can’t be overestimated,” said Pat Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.
New tunnels are needed to prevent such a crisis and to allow continued economic growth, the conferees said. Rail travel across the Hudson has increased 140 percent in the past 25 years, even as auto travel has declined, and is projected to double again by 2040, according to the Regional Plan Association, which organized the conference with the Port Authority.
“This conference isn’t about transportation. It’s about jobs,” Foye said during a panel discussion. “It’s about protecting and retaining the jobs the region already has and creating the platform for future job growth. It is not an overstatement to say the region’s economic prosperity is at stake.”
But even with that looming risk and the kick in the pants from Rogoff, fundamental questions remain unanswered. Most importantly, which agency will own and direct the project? And where will the required funding, which could reach $15 billion or more, come from?
How will Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who are both under pressure to pay for other transportation needs, somehow agree to support such a massive undertaking? And what role will be played by the powerful but politically vulnerablePort Authority, which needs to spend billions on other projects and remains under a cloud of Bridgegate-related scandals?
In economics, experiments are rare. There is seldom a control group. But sometimes crude experiments can be done. Both the passenger and freight rail system in the US were nationalized after “common carrier” price neutrality regulation bankrupted the industries. But then freight rail was privatized, while passenger rail was kept public. Now, the US has the world’s BEST freight and WORST passenger rail.
Freight rail’s renaissance is powering the U.S. economy even without Uncle Sam’s help
By Michael Grunwald @MikeGrunwaldJuly 09, 2012
Congress is gridlocked over infrastructure. On one side, Democrats want to invest in America. On the other side, Republicans want to tighten government’s belt. But there’s one more side to this story. U.S. freight railroads will get $23 billion worth of upgrades this year, and taxpayers won’t pick up the tab. That’s because the railroads build, maintain and improve their own infrastructure and even pay property taxes on their tracks. Also, freight trains are about three times as fuel-efficient as long-haul trucks, which means they help cut smog and reduce the U.S.’s carbon emissions and oil dependence. And forget those accident-prone trains your kids watch on Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. In reality, shifting freight from roads to rails sharply reduces crashes and congestion.
We don’t think much about freight trains except when they make us wait at intersections or blow their horns while chugging through our towns. The industry evokes images of ruthless Gilded Age monopolies and hapless 1970s bankruptcies. But railroads are one of my favorite special interests–not because they’re less greedy or aggressive than other Washington lobbies but because what’s good for them really does tend to be good for us.
It’s not just that they are self-sufficient and fuel-efficient, employ 175,000 workers and have poured $500 billion into their trains, tracks and terminals since 1980. They are also quite literally the engines of our economy. America’s passenger rail is a global joke, but our freight rail is the envy of the world, carrying over 40% of our intercity cargo. Trains carry much less of Europe’s freight, which is why trucks clog Europe’s highways. And America’s rail-shipping rates are the world’s lowest, reducing the cost of doing business in the U.S.; they’ve fallen 45% in real dollars since the industry was deregulated three decades ago.
The right should love railroads because they’re proof that deregulation can work and the private sector can upgrade infrastructure. The left should love railroads because they fight global warming and provide union jobs. We all should love railroads because they bring us our stuff and keep prices down.
A MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT AND CEO JOE BOARDMAN REGARDING RESTORATION OF SERVICE ON THE NORTHEAST CORRIDOR
by Joe Boardman May 17, 2015
At Amtrak, the safety of our passengers and crew remains our number one priority. Since the tragic derailment, Amtrak staff and crew have been working around the clock to repair the infrastructure necessary to restore service for all the passengers who travel along the Northeast Corridor. Our repairs have been made with the utmost care and emphasis on safety, including complete compliance with Federal Railroad Administration directives.
Effective with departures from Philadelphia at 5:53 a.m. (Train 110) and New York City at 5:30 a.m. (Train 111) on Monday, May 18, Amtrak will restore normal service on the Northeast Corridor.
Although service along the Northeast Corridor will begin again tomorrow, the derailment of Northeast Regional Train 188 is a tragedy that we at Amtrak will continue to mourn and are dedicated to learning from.
Thank you for your support of America’s Railroad.
Joe Boardman
Amtrak President and CEO
The Amtrak Crash: Is More Spending the Answer?
By Randal O’Toole
This article appeared in the Newsweek on May 13, 2015
It is too soon to tell what caused the Amtrak train crash that killed seven people on May 12. But advocates of increased government spending are already beginning to use the crash to promote more spending on infrastructure and are criticizing Republicans who voted to reduce Amtrak’s budget the day after the crash.
Yet there is a flaw in the assumption that spending more money would result in better infrastructure. In fact, in some cases, the problem is that too much money is being spent infrastructure, but in the wrong places.
The reason for this is that politicians prefer to spend money building new infrastructure over maintaining the old. The result is that existing infrastructure that depends on tax dollars steadily declines while any new funds raised for infrastructure tend to go to new projects.
“Politicians prefer to spend money building new infrastructure over maintaining the old.”
We can see this in the Boston, Washington, and other rail transit systems. Boston’s system is $9 billion in debt, has a $3 billion maintenance backlog, and needs to spend nearly $700 million a year just to keep the backlog from growing. Yet has only budgeted $100 million for maintenance this year, and instead of repairing the existing system, Boston is spending $2 billion extending one of its light-rail lines.
Similarly, Washington’s Metro rail system has a $10 billion maintenance backlog, and poor maintenance was the cause of the 2009 wreck that killed nine people. Yet, rather than rehabilitate their portions of the system, Northern Virginia is spending $6.8 billion building a new rail line to Dulles Airport; D.C. wants to spend $1 billion on new streetcar lines; and Maryland is considering building a $2.5 billion light-rail line in D.C. suburbs.
On the other hand, infrastructure that is funded out of user fees is generally in good shape. Despite tales of crumbling bridges, the 2007 Minnesota bridge collapse was due to a construction flaw and the 2013 Washington state bridge collapse was due to an oversized truck; lack of maintenance had nothing to do with either failure.
Department of Transportation numbers show that the number of bridges considered structurally deficient has fallen by more than 50 percent since 1990, while the average roughness of highway pavement has decreased. State highways and bridges, which are almost entirely funded out of user fees, tend to be in the best condition while local highways and bridges, which depend more on tax dollars, tend to be the ones with the most serious problems.
Before 1970, almost all of our transportation infrastructure was funded out of user fees and the United States had the best transportation system in the world. Since then, funding decisions have increasingly been made by politicians who are more interested in getting their pictures taken cutting ribbons than in making sure our transportation systems run safely and smoothly.
Proponents of higher gas taxes and other increased funding on infrastructure may talk about crumbling bridges, but what they really want is to spend more money on new projects that are often of little value. For example, they want high-speed trains that cost more but go less than half the speed of flying and light-rail trains that cost more but can move fewer people than buses.
This country doesn’t need more infrastructure that it can’t afford to maintain. Instead, it needs a more reliable system of transport funding, and that means one based on user fees and not tax subsidies.
by JOHN NOLTE13 May 2015
Before the dead were counted and the facts known, the craven, partisan ghouls in our mainstream media were already using a terrible domestic tragedy to call for more government spending.
The media’s politically-loaded word of the day is “infrastructure.” This comes as absolutely no surprise when you understand that the foundation of all media bias is to increase the size and power of our centralized government. And what better way to do that than to feast off the fresh corpses of those killed on a passenger train run by our bloated, incompetent federal government.
And what better way to distract from the fact that 6 innocent people died on a passenger train run by our bloated, incompetent federal government than to blame-shift to the selfish taxpayers and the evil Republican Party.
You see, Amtrak is like Baltimore: although government has had its fingers in everything for decades, the only solution is more government.
Heads up! This is the media’s game-plan for the rest of the week: At least through the Sunday shows, the media will exploit the Amtrak tragedy to call for more government spending and blame Republicans.
That makes this a perfect time to arm yourselves with the facts:
The Federal Government Owns and Operates Amtrak
Amtrak Loses Hundreds of Millions of Dollars a Year
American Taxpayers Subsidize a Service They Don’t Use
Very Small Percentage of the Population Use a Government Service We All Pay For
Amtrak Has Already Been Subsidized to the Tune of a Whopping $45 billion
Amtrak Is Set to Receive Another $7 Billion Over the Next 5 years
Amtrak Is Not Under-Funded, It Is Criminally Mismanaged
American People Subsidize $60 of Every Amtrak Ticket Sold
Taxpayers Subsidize Passengers Who Can Afford to Make Amtrak Profitable
There Is No Good Reason for The Government To Own Amtrak
The Amtrak Derailment Might Be Yet Another Failure of the Federal Government
https://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/05/13/11-things-the-media-wont-tell-you-about-amtrak/
May 13, 7:37 AM EDT
BY GEOFF MULVIHILL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Daylight on Wednesday revealed the destruction and devastation caused by an Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia that left at least six people dead and injured dozens more, several critically.
Some survivors had to scramble through the windows of toppled cars to escape. One of the seven cars was completely mangled.
The accident has closed the nation’s busiest rail corridor between New York and Washington as federal investigators begin sifting through the twisted remains to determine what went wrong.
Train 188, a Northeast Regional, left Washington, D.C. and was headed to New York when it derailed shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday. Amtrak said the train was carrying 238 passengers and five crew members.
Mayor Michael Nutter, who confirmed five deaths, said the scene was horrific and not all the people on the train had been accounted for.
Temple University Hospital’s Dr. Herbert Cushing said Wednesday a person died there overnight from a chest injury
“It is an absolute disastrous mess,” Nutter said. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”
He said all seven train cars, including the engine, were in “various stages of disarray.” He said there were cars that were “completely overturned, on their side, ripped apart.”
More than 140 people went to hospitals to be evaluated or treated.
Hudson River train tunnel hinges on pricey plan
JANUARY 17, 2015, 4:32 PM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 2015, 11:36 PM
BY CHRISTOPHER MAAG
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
As talk heats up again about building tunnels under the Hudson River, Amtrak is hanging its hopes on constructing a new station that will consume more than a block of midtown Manhattan, a site already rejected by other planners who thought the land would be prohibitively expensive.
Proponents of the new station say that whatever the cost, it’s the only way to complete a project that officials on both sides of the river say is needed.
The number of commuters using Pennsylvania Station is growing every year, and the current pair of century-old tunnels face a protracted shutdown for repairs to ensure they don’t become unsafe. While the new tunnels and station are years from opening, under Amtrak’s plan they would carry hundreds of thousands of commuters into Manhattan daily, relieving pressure on the region’s aging bridges and motor vehicle tunnels.
If new tunnels are built without a new station, Amtrak officials say there will be no room at Penn Station to place the additional trains.
“You cannot take advantage of the additional capacity of new tunnels without expanding the physical capacity of Penn Station,” said Drew Galloway, Amtrak’s deputy chief of planning for the Northeast Corridor.
But to get that done, the nation’s rail agency may have to spend more than $1 billion just to buy the land.
“They’re delusional. I don’t think they can build it,” said David Widawsky, who directed the planning to build the Access to the Region’s Core, or ARC, tunnel from New Jersey to New York. The project was killed by Governor Christie in 2010.
Widawsky’s team had considered building a train station at the same site, now called Penn South, but almost immediately realized the property was so expensive that the project could not be done.
“It was eliminated in the first cut,” Widawsky said. “The real estate on that block is just prohibitively expensive.”
The price of land — and getting Congress to pay for it — isn’t Amtrak’s only hurdle. The agency also must deal with two notable, longstanding buildings on the block, including a church. And it must assemble and maintain political support for a 20-year project that will outlast nine sessions of Congress and cover terms of at least three presidents.
Amtrak’s leaders say they understand the high costs of Penn South, but with money from Congress, they believe it can be built.
“We all know it is a huge challenge,” said Galloway. “But there is recognition that some investment in capacity is necessary, and nowhere is that more critical than Penn Station.”
At today’s prices, Amtrak would spend somewhere from $769 million to $1.3 billion just to buy the block bounded to the north and south by 31st and 30th streets, and to the east and west by Seventh and Eighth avenues. That figure is based on development guidelines from the New York City Planning Commission, recent nearby sales figures provided by Ariel Property Advisors, and a rough estimate of the block’s buildable square footage.
Costs are rising fast, however. In just the last three years, the neighborhoods around Penn South went from ghost town to boomtown. Real estate prices are 2½ times higher now than they were just three years ago, said Bob Knackal, chairman of New York investment sales for Cushman & Wakefield.
By the time Amtrak is finally ready to buy land, prices will be even higher, real estate experts said.
“Clearly, values in the area are skyrocketing, and many of the properties are underbuilt relative to their potential,” said Knackal, a Maywood native. “People are selling these properties more for the value of the land potential, as opposed to the value of the existing bricks on the site. So that makes it very, very expensive.”
Whatever is eventually built, all sides agree that Amtrak and Congress must act quickly. The two existing Hudson River tunnels are 104 years old, and both suffered extensive flood damage during Superstorm Sandy. At most, the tunnels can operate only until 2034 before one must be shut down and entirely rebuilt, Amtrak officials said in October. Unless new tunnels are built and operating by then, trans-Hudson traffic will drop from 24 trains an hour to six, causing massive congestion across the region, officials said.
Timing is also important because Penn Station is full. Opened in 1910 to serve 200,000 travelers a day, the station now handles half a million a day, according to Amtrak, and that number is growing 2.5 percent to 3 percent every year.
“If you continue that growth into the future, it’s a pretty sobering number,” Galloway said.
Others saw the same problems looming two decades ago and came to different conclusions about the solutions.
The ARC project originally included planners from all three major transportation agencies in the region: NJ Transit, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The MTA pulled out of the project in 2001.
For that project, planners decided to build a new station under 34th Street. The station was so deep underground that it had only limited pedestrian access to Penn Station and no capacity for trains to transfer between the two stations. The plan eventually was dubbed the “tunnel to Macy’s basement” by Christie, who cited the station’s depth as one of his reasons for canceling the project in 2010.
But the tunnel to Macy’s basement had two big advantages: It was cheap and would have been relatively quick to build. By fitting the entire station inside 34th Street’s wide right-of-way, planners said they knew they could avoid paying top-dollar for prime Manhattan real estate and also avoid protracted legal battles with landowners and tenants.
“We were looking under 34th Street because you can do it without taking a lot of properties,” said Tom Schultz, who ran the planning process for NJ Transit for five years after Widawsky retired.
But for Amtrak, the issue of connecting the new and old stations is paramount, Galloway said. That’s why the agency’s planners decided to go the more expensive, time-consuming and risky route — bulldozing an entire city block to build a station at ground level.
“Unlike some of the other programs that looked at standalone facilities, we think an integrated campus is the right idea for this location,” Galloway said.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/hudson-river-train-tunnel-hinges-on-pricey-plan-1.1211136
