'Transportation Armageddon' Is Coming to the Northeast Rail Corridor

In January 2011, Senator Chuck Schumer warned that disinvestment in rail infrastructure between New York and New Jersey could cause a decline in the region’s economic viability. That was shortly after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie single-handedly shut down construction of an $8.7 billion federal project to build two new tunnels across the river, citing concerns about his state’s liability for cost overruns. Schumer, speaking at a Crain’s forum, said Christie’s move would have long-term repercussions:

The project Christie killed—loudly proclaiming his fiscal responsibility to a receptive conservative audience—would have been the biggest public-works endeavor in the nation at the time, modernizing and adding capacity to an outdated and overburdened Hudson River rail crossing where Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains compete for track time while carrying 160,000 passengers each day. Flooding from Superstorm Sandy in 2012 accelerated the forces of entropy,and Amtrak has said it will have to shut down tunnels in and out of Manhattan one at a time for repairs.