Photo Credit: Getty Images President Joe Biden traveled to New York today to highlight a $292 million federal grant which will help to construct a critically needed, $16 billion commuter rail tunnel under the Hudson River connecting Manhattan and New Jersey. The Gateway Tunnel project has long been supported by Democrats, and the President today, standing inside of the tunnel at the West Side Rail Yard in New York, highlighted the difference between his economic vision and that of elected Republicans.
The President stated, “This tunnel opened for business in 1910, 113 years ago…and the structure is literally deteriorating. The roof is leaking, the floor is sinking. Plus, it was badly damaged by Superstorm Sandy … The United States of America, for God’s sakes, what are we doing? This is the United States of America. We know better, we’re so much brighter than that. And now we’re going to prove it.”
Partial funding for the Gateway Project, as well as other critical transportation infrastructure projects nationwide, comes from the bipartisan Infrastructure Law which was passed by Congress and signed by the President.
The Gateway Project involves the construction of an entirely new, separate tunnel under the river, followed by the rebuilding of the existing, century old tube. Biden stated that the new tunnel will allow trains to run at faster speeds, as high as 100 MPH, without interruptions. 200,000 weekday commuters travel on Amtrak and NJ Transit trains beneath the Hudson River daily.
The federal funding President Biden announced today is part of $1.2 billion in so-called “mega” grants that are being awarded under the 2021 Infrastructure Law.
According to the White House, this construction project could result in as many as 72,000 jobs.
New Jersey’s senior United States Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), one of the many elected officials joining the President at today’s event, stated, “It’s an honor to be here as we mark the next phase of the Gateway Program and the expansion of the Northeast Corridor. It was 12 years ago today, almost to the day, when I joined Amtrak officials and then the late-Senator Frank Lautenberg to unveil our plan for a new railway link between the Garden State and the Empire State.”
Also attending the press conference were New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D), U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D), New York’s two, United States Senators, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), New Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-5), federal Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams.
