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No one said anything about ass kissing. In fact, NY/NJ politicians have been nothing but hateful of Trump with their rhetoric. Murphy attacked Trump and even ran on the platform of being a sanctuary state just to spite Trump. His campaign slogan was “fight Trump, vote Murphy.” Schumer, Cuomo, DeBlasio, Booker, etc. take shots at Trump at any chance they get. They are sending a message that they are hostile to anything Trump.
If you are going to be this hostile to the administration, you must be nuts to then expect them to hand you everything you want. Even your beloved Obama did nothing for this region and he had eight years to.
There is no national significance to helping NYC and NJ. Many of the industries of this area can readily and easily be replicated in other areas of this country. It will not be missed. In fact Chicago is already salivating at taking over for Wall Street. Anything in NJ can totally be done anywhere else, and probably cheaper and better too. Many large companies have already moved out to greener pastures over the past half century.
Missing the point. This isn’t about what Schumer or Murphy or anyone “wants.”
Whether senators, govs, whomever, say or act a certain way has no bearing on the validity of an infrastructure project. The project is as worthy as any for federal support because it has impacts stretching far beyond NY and NJ. For years the Feds have been moving away from “pet projects” and favoritism toward performance-based planning and investment, where the best projects with greatest ROI get funded. If the administration is acting in response to real or perceived personal “beef” with members of Congress, that would be a really disappointing regression and would not be good for anyone. I really hope that is not the case.
If you read the history of the train tunnels under the Hudson they were built by private industry, the railroads. Why is this now supposed to be public works. I can't see NY and NJ taxpayers footing the bill with bond sales.
Because thanks in no small part to actions by federal and local governments passenger rail companies went out of business. Do you see any large private passenger rail other than state run commuter lines and Amtrak?
New Jersey didn't have a state income tax until 1976, instead it relied mostly upon property taxes of which it placed heavily upon railroads.
Make no mistake, building the North River tunnels, Penn Station, East River Tunnels and Sunnyside Yards was a huge financial undertaking for Pennsylvania RR. More fiscal burden was added when they electrified the ROW first stopping at Philly, then going down to Washington, D.C. . It has been debated in many circles if PRR ever got back its money on those investments and or did they hasten that famed railroad's demise. No other RR had tunnels into Manhattan, and the New Jersey Central, Lackawanna among others all stayed with using ferries right up until they were either gone and or after reorganization used the Hudson River tunnels.
PRR budgeted 40 million (in 1901 money) for building the tunnels. Of course they didn't have that cash lying about spare, but issued debt (bonds) in anticipation of future increased revenue.
While some in Congress have had a hard on for killing Amtrak since it was created (which is what will happen if something is not done about the North River tunnels), sooner or later the new will be built, it just stands to reason.
North East Corridor is the most heavily travelled stretch of RR ROW in the USA IIRC. And one of the few bright spots on Amtrak's balance sheets, especially now that something remotely approaching HSR from Washington D.C. to NYC and beyond to Boston is finally taking shape (Acela service).
Nearly all the NEC especially from the Portal Bridge east to the North River Tunnels and beyond was built by PRR (or the New Haven and a few other RRs) over one hundred years ago. Infrastructure is old, outdated, and past useful life, thus wants replacing. In the case of bridges and tunnels failure at wrong time could bring potentially huge loss of life and or harm to passengers and others.
So the question then becomes who is going to pay for all this work. If you look at the hot mess of state transit projects (Lackawanna Cutoff restoration, East Side LIRR access) it is clear even those simple infrastructure projects tax the resources of local governments.
Before anyone starts, no major RR, pool of investors or whatever is interested in buying Amtrak and or any other venture to restart private passenger rail road service. The investments are too great and ROI too small for anyone to bother. Freight is where big money historically has been and still is for that matter.
This should not be about who kisses whose a$$. This is a project of national significance for the betterment of the regional and national economy.
Realistically, it's not national. The heyday of long distance train service is in the past. Amtrak doesn't need 2 additional tunnels. Even with just one tunnel, you can put 8 trains per hour across the river. Amtrak only needs 6. So in theory they could shut down each tunnel (and all NJT service) for repair for a year and run with full service. Expensive, but much cheaper than Gateway. Gateway is a regional project, not national.
Realistically, it's not national. The heyday of long distance train service is in the past. Amtrak doesn't need 2 additional tunnels. Even with just one tunnel, you can put 8 trains per hour across the river. Amtrak only needs 6. So in theory they could shut down each tunnel (and all NJT service) for repair for a year and run with full service. Expensive, but much cheaper than Gateway. Gateway is a regional project, not national.
What is a national project then? Something which crosses all 50 states?
Realistically, it's not national. The heyday of long distance train service is in the past. Amtrak doesn't need 2 additional tunnels. Even with just one tunnel, you can put 8 trains per hour across the river. Amtrak only needs 6. So in theory they could shut down each tunnel (and all NJT service) for repair for a year and run with full service. Expensive, but much cheaper than Gateway. Gateway is a regional project, not national.
Yes, the old PRR built the North River tunnels, approaches, Penn Station, East River tunnels and Sunnyside yard for their own purposes. But in the decades since PRR became PennCentral then folded things have changed.
Those Hudson River tunnels not only handle Amtrak trains, but what was once PRR commuter service which is now NJT trains. The latter in turn also comprises commuter rail service that once stopped at ferry terminals which lined the Hudson; Central Railroad of New Jersey, Erie RR, New York Central, etc...
So unless you intend to bring back large scale ferry service from NJ to NYC, those RR tunnels are the only game in town. Besides via federal laws IIRC Amtrak may own the NEC, tunnels and other ROW, but cannot exclude NJT and keep for sole use.
His obsession with Obama mesmerizes me. It reminds me back in grade school when a girl would bully a boy that she secretly was in love with. I've read from anonymous sources in the administration that they can get him to do stuff because they'd say "Obama wouldn't do this". Supposedly that's why he ordered that botched raid in Yemen like a year ago. Someone told him "Obama wouldn't take the risk" so Trump was like "Oh yeah? Watch this". He is a strange orange small handed man.
the obsession with reading trump's mind is fascinating, amounts to fantasizing about trump to fit the hysterical dem/media narrative.
Just as when Obama supporters claimed any opposition to Obama's policies was race based, and never ever predicated on Obama making a poor decision or a fatal blunder. Obama was known for creative accounting, making economic mistakes and calling them good investments, promoting shovel ready jobs that never materialized. What could be the problem with the GTP?????
No, only based on Trump's desire to erase Obama's legacy. The great hysterical flu of 2016 has flourished thru 2017 and the prognosis for 2018 is more of the same. The dems are still stuttering and shuffling in shock from November 2016, while the world passes them by. Dems are the party of the afflicted, making themselves irrelevant.
This should not be about who kisses whose a$$. This is a project of national significance for the betterment of the regional and national economy.
There's a difference between not kissing his ass and referring to him or condoning him as Hitler. What, did you think this administration's gonna happily give these people what they want after that, on top them asking for federal loans to bail them out when they were supposed to cough up the required money beforehand?
States are privately investing in new rail transit. They got the money. Even if they didn't, how about NJ finally investing in I dunno, New Jersey transit by upgrading bus terminals, rail stations, new light rail extensions, etc. to help out its own cities and towns rather than sucking up to NYC? National significance? People can fly which can be more affordable and less time consuming. Amtrak can terminate its NEC in remodeled terminals in Newark, Secaucus or Philly.
States are privately investing in new rail transit. They got the money. Even if they didn't, how about NJ finally investing in I dunno, New Jersey transit by upgrading bus terminals, rail stations, new light rail extensions, etc. to help out its own cities and towns rather than sucking up to NYC? National significance? People can fly which can be more affordable and less time consuming. Amtrak can terminate its NEC in remodeled terminals in Newark, Secaucus or Philly.
I agree we need to invest more in NJ infrastructure and cities than we do. But there is also a real problem at the Hudson River, and “just terminate the Amtrak service at SEC or Newark” isn’t a real solution.
I agree we need to invest more in NJ infrastructure and cities than we do. But there is also a real problem at the Hudson River, and “just terminate the Amtrak service at SEC or Newark” isn’t a real solution.
Problem with NJ infrastructure as it relates to rail is so much was destroyed and or abandoned in the 1950's through say 1980's that could prove useful today. However the costs of rebuilding and or reactivating a ROW are often huge. The Lackawanna Cutoff project is proof enough.
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