The Planning process for a proposed new trans-Hudson rail tunnel is moving forward this month with public review of the latest draft of the tunnel's alignment and its potential impact on the environment.
A series of public hearings on the proposed tunnel's draft environmental impact statement has been completed. Alliance for Action Vice President Chris Hartman testified at the August 3rd hearing in Secaucus, NJ stressing the economic benefits of a new Rail Tunnel to the entire region, while noting the degradation of the current rail tubes. Federal and state officials are also collecting public comments on the tunnel, which would be built as part of the larger Gateway transportation project, through August 21.
The public hearings and the collection of public comments are important steps in the tunnel project's planning process, which currently calls for a final environmental impact statement to be issued next spring to allow for construction to get underway in 2019.
The new tunnel between North Bergen and New York's Penn Station is the most significant feature of the Gateway initiative, which also involves other infrastructure improvements in the region, including the planned replacement of a key rail bridge spanning the Hackensack River near Secaucus Junction.
The current trans-Hudson tunnel that's utilized by both Amtrak and New Jersey Transit supports an estimated 200,000 daily train passengers, but it is already more than a century old. The existing tunnel, which features two tubes that allow for traffic in each direction, was also damaged by Superstorm Sandy in 2012, and is in need of repair. Transportation officials have warned that if just one of the two tubes were to go out of service for emergency work, there would be a reduction in overall rail capacity of 75 percent.