Federal approval of an environmental impact statement for the proposed New York-New Jersey Gateway train tunnel project could come by May 28, according to officials from the organization overseeing the multibillion-dollar program.
The Federal Railroad Administration will post its record of decision on its website dashboard by then, members of the Gateway Development Commission said at Wednesday's meeting, the second for the seven-member,
"We're moving in the right direction," said New Jersey Chairwoman Balpreet Grewal-Virk. The panel consists of three members each from New York and New Jersey, plus Amtrak Chairman Anthony Coscia.
A record of decision, a vital step for the project, would enable pre-construction work, such as property acquisition. The FRA is three years late with the deadline the U.S. Department of Transportation imposed. Former President Donald Trump had stalled the project.
The work, a joint undertaking among the Gateway Planning Development Corp., Amtrak, NJTransit and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, would include constructing a dual-track tunnel under the Hudson River and rehabilitating existing tubes to double-rail capacity. The current tunnels are 110 years old.
Construction would eliminate a “single point of failure” and help spur the New York region’s comeback from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Frank Sacr, the Gateway program’s interim executive director.
The estimated tab for the tunnel project and companion Portal North Bridge across the Hackensack River in Kearny, New Jersey, is about $11.6 billion. "We're doing everything to maintain that number," Coscia told reporters. “Hopefully after the ROD is issued we can advance into engineering, but there are inflationary things in the marketplace.”
Other costs range from nearly $2 billion to fix the old tunnel and, on a broader scale, a further $11 billion for the so-called Penn Station South, to enable more trains into Manhattan. New Jersey is also in store for $9.3 billion of related projects.
Under President Biden, the feds have fast-tracked the project, which is vital to Northeast Corridor train traffic. The tunnels are adjacent to New York’s Penn Station, which is undergoing its own massive renovation.
A coalition of neighborhood and transit advocates has asked U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to halt New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed Empire Station Complex at Penn Station pending a cost-benefit analysis of alternatives and development of a through-running commuter rail implementation plan.
Cuomo’s estimated $200 billion
That tower would replace the Hotel Pennsylvania, which Vornado Realty Trust owns.
“Such a demolition plan appears to be guided by real estate interests over the needs of commuters and residents,” said the
Cuomo last month announced two alternatives for reconstructing Penn Station’s concourses and exterior facade.
The coalition has also called for the relocation of Madison Square Garden, which sits above Penn Station.
Civic organization ReThinkNYC said converting Penn Station’s lower level to through-running would be less costly than Cuomo’s plan. While Penn Station enables through-running for quasi-public Amtrak, it is an end point for Long Island Rail Road and NJTransit trains.
LIRR and Metro-North are units of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the city’s subway system and has six such lines at Penn Station.
Metro-North service to Penn Station will begin after completion of the East River tunnel rehabilitation and the MTA's East Side Access Project, which will provide direct LIRR service to Grand Central Terminal, making slots available at Penn for Metro-North trains.
Janno Lieber, president of MTA construction and development, said studies have assumed opportunities for through-running as an option for the future, although existing priorities include rehabbing Penn Station and preparing for more train traffic with the expected new Gateway tunnels under the Hudson River.
Through-running, according to Lieber, would require widening platforms and tearing up some of the work at the new station adjunct Moynihan Hall.
“We would also have to have more meaningful through-running increases, East River tunnel capacity,” Lieber told reporters after a recent MTA board meeting. “Right now, the East River tunnels are full. If you are going to use through-running, you would need new tunnels under the East River. [We’re] working on it. But right now we need to fix Penn Station."
