Fifteen Democratic U.S. senators tore into the Trump administration Thursday over delays in greenlighting construction of the Gateway tunnel, an $11.3 billion rail project that would create a new link between New York and New Jersey.
In a letter to the Federal Railroad Administration, the senators sharply criticized Administrator Ronald Batory over the slow process.
They also accused him of ignoring their requests for a timeline showing when the agency would complete an environmental impact statement and issue a record of decision on the project’s pending funding application.“It is unacceptable that we have yet to receive a definite timeline for completion of the environmental review,” the senators wrote in the letter, in which they went on to “implore” Batory to provide a detailed update.
The tunnel project will provide a replacement for the two existing tunnels that now carry Amtrak and NJ Transit trains between New York and New Jersey. The existing two-track connection, well more than a century old and damaged by Hurricane Sandy’s floodwaters, is a lynchpin in Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor — the busiest stretch of railroad in the Western Hemisphere.
The replacement tunnel has been repeatedly deemed ineligible for federal funding and supporters have complained transportation officials keep moving the goal posts — a charge they deny.
A power failure near the existing tunnels this week caused hourslong delays for commuters and Amtrak riders on Monday, an incident regional officials say offers a taste of what would happen if just one tube were shut down for repairs.
“These tubes are old and in need of significant rehabilitation,” the senators, representing eight northeastern states, wrote in their letter. “If they are forced to close, the region would grind to a standstill, and the nation’s economy would suffer immensely.”
A spokesperson for the FRA had no comment and said the agency would respond directly to the senators.
The letter to the FRA came as the Trump administration announced Thursday that it was banning New Yorkers from its Global Entry and other trusted traveler programs meant to ease entry through international airports. The feds cited a new state law in New York granting driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. The law also prohibits the state Department of Motor Vehicles from sharing driver information with federal immigration authorities.
Some saw parallels to the Gateway tunnel and related Portal Bridge project in New Jersey. The tunnel project — and possibly the bridge — is said to be the victim of President Donald Trump’s feud with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Officials in New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration, which has been working with the federal Department of Transportation in hopes of securing funding for the work, aren’t sure if there will be consequences for Gateway following the traveler program freeze-out.
“I think it’s too early to tell whether the administration intends to jeopardize an infrastructure project that would put thousands of people to work and is a critical link,” said one senior Murphy administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to freely discuss the sensitive subject. The official said the real test will be whether the president provides funding for the Portal Bridge in his pending budget.
Other officials who support the Gateway project have just about run out of hope, seeing the latest news as another sign the project will never get funding while Trump is president.
“It’s so beyond the pale that we could have somebody as president of the United States who would think you get even like you’re on a playground — that you’re going to get even with a whole state,” said Loretta Weinberg, the state Senate majority leader in New Jersey. “Do I have faith that they will be funding gateway? No, I don’t.”