Amtrak & NJT: Why not share tunnels?

Can two rail agencies share a set of new tunnels under the Hudson River to midtown Manhattan and save billions of dollars, instead of building separate tubes under the Hudson River? asks the Asbury Park, N.J., Press.

A New Jersey lawmaker and a
group of rail advocates are asking Amtrak and New Jersey Transit officials to
find a way to share a set of new tunnels between them to save money, after
Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor master plan called for construction of its own set
of new tunnels to Penn Station. If built, Amtrak’s tunnels would join NJT’s
planned access to the region’s core tunnels, on which minor construction has
begun on the New Jersey side, and the current tunnels built by the Pennsylvania
Railroad 100 years ago and used by commuter and Amtrak trains.

The federal government
would pay the lion’s share for Amtrak’s tubes – expected to cost an estimated
$10 billion – and $3 billion toward the $8.7 billion the NJT plan to build a
tunnel and deep station under 34th Street in Manhattan. The NJT project is
scheduled to be completed by 2018.

"We should work with
Amtrak. There needs to be more cooperation between these organizations,"
said state Sen. Michael Doherty. "There is a long tradition in the train
industry of everyone having their own equipment and being reluctant to
cooperate and share facilities."

Doherty, a member of the
state Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, questioned NJT officials
about the tunnel project at an April hearing on the state transportation
budget.

"The new
administration needs to look at being more cost effective," said Joseph
Clift, a retired Long Island Rail Road planning director and member of the
Regional Rail Working Group, which supports designing the NJT tunnels to go to
Penn Station. "The idea is we want to do a cost-effective job and force
the two agencies to work together. We may be reaching that point."

In 2009, then-Gov. Jon S.
Corzine signed an executive order requiring the state comptroller to provide
oversight for the 25 tunnel project contracts and to assess contractor
performance.