The ailing tunnel that connects Penn Station to New Jersey won’t be getting relief anytime soon from its onslaught of daily commuters.
A federal plan, agreed to by Obama in 2015, to underwrite about 50 percent of the cost of building a new tunnel connecting Penn Station to Jersey was scrapped yesterday by the Trump administration by way total denial, according to Crain’s.
“There is no such agreement,” Federal Transit Administration official K. Jane Williams wrote in a Friday letter to state governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie.
The Gateway Development Corporation, specially formed for the project, remained hopeful the President would revisit the decision next year.
“There is no more urgent infrastructure project than Gateway, and posturing aside, we are confident that the Trump administration will engage with us as the president turns to infrastructure in 2018,” said a spokesman in a company statement.
Crain’s sources suggest that the comment about posturing refers to now-Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer’s support for Gateway. In addition to plans for the new tunnel, the project also encompasses repairs to the existing tunnel and reconstruction of Portal Bridge in New Jersey.
[Crain’s] — Erin Hudson