When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie killed the ARC Tunnel project last fall, he did so because the project would probably have gone overbudget by anywhere between $1-$5 billion. It wasn’t responsible for the state to borrow that much to pay for a rail connection, he said. Well, last week, Christie said he would pay for road, rail and bridge upgrades throughout his state by borrowing $4.4 billion and foisting the rest on the Port Authority.
If this plan comes to fruition, it would divert some turnpike toll money into the state’s depleted Transportation Trust Fund and the Port Authority would pick up the slack. To gain New York’s Port Authority approval, the PA would also spend some of its dollars on similar projects in New York. It is, said The Star-Ledger, a clear money grab designed to keep the state’s gas tax at its low level, and it’s a move that reeks of the same financial irresponsibility that Christie has railed against for months. It also elevates road-building over the need for new cross-Hudson rail connections.
NJ Senator Frank Lautenberg did not have kind words for Christie. “The Governor’s transportation plan is short on details, but it made one thing very clear. The plan is more proof that the Governor killed the critically-needed new tunnel to Manhattan so he could use its funding as part of a fix for his political problems. Transportation is the economic lifeblood of our state – the most densely populated in the country – and Governor Christie’s policies are undermining years of planning and hard work to keep New Jersey on the move,” he said. “During Governor Christie’s campaign for office, he said borrowing to finance the Transportation Trust Fund is ‘unconscionable.’ Why is it now acceptable? All he is doing is piling more debt on the state.”
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I’ve been waiting for weeks to say this again:
BOONDOGGLE! BOONDOGGLE!
Fundamentally, Christie objected to having all of New Jersey pay for a project that would primarily benefit commuters to New York City (who pay a large share of the state’s taxes).
Instead, he proposed Port Authority tolls on those going to New York City be used to fund all of New Jersey.
Fundamentally, Christie objected to having New Jersey pay for transit. He said so as much in an interview – gas tax hikes were bad because they fell on his people, fare hikes were fine because they fell on other people.
I’m with Lautenberg. Raise the gas tax, cancel road projects, fund ARC (or the 7 extension or whatever else brings another tunnel under the Hudson).
Now the NJ Tpke can be 9 lanes wide in each direction!
Oh, but WHY STOP AT NINE?
Yes! Double deck that mofo from Delaware to New York! 18 lanes of pure concrete heaven!!!
+1
asphalt
New Jersey is suburban. Although its nice that they have public transportation to take them into NYC, to live in NJ one STILL needs a car, as grocery stores are typically not around the corner. So you’d have to drive to go pretty much anywhere, and a lot of jobs (if the person works in NJ) you’d still need to drive to.
With that said, yes, I would like for the 7 line extension to be built to Secaucus.
Driving to the grocery store and driving into Manhattan are two very different things. The point of the ARC tunnel was to ease transportation between states for mutual (and national) benefit. Christie is part of a gaggle of petty parochial partisans looking out for their narrow self interest to the detriment of our national transportation plan.
Since when does the US have a national transportation plan?
Back when Eisenhower was alive with the National Interstate System.
More recent ones are ISTEA, (that JSK used to help her get to where she is now as NYC DOT head honcho), TEA-21, SAFETEA-LU (2nd Ave subway, ARC), and other recent Federal Acts.
Yes, it passes through Congress, and is often loaded with low priority projects of dubious long term economics, pork and endless highway expansion, instead of mass transit and critical infrastructure replacement.
I’ll grant you the Interstate network, but since then, the projects funded have come out of individual grants, not a national plan. The subway construction binge in the 1960s and 70s came close, but even then there was never any attempt at ensuring the lines funded would be compatible, let alone fare- and timetable-integrated.
NJTransit’s commuter rail, and thus the ARC project, are suburban forms of transit.
Well, you’ve obviously never been to Jersey City, Newark, Fort Lee, Weehawken, Trenton, Camden, Hackensack, or Hoboken. Not all of them necessarily demand round-the-clock transit, but they’re all at least have sizable walkable neighborhoods for one reason or another.
I would not paint with so broad a brush, and a few are at least as ripe for additional transit investment as Queens.
[…] his strongest words were reserved for Christie’s current political machinations. The New Jersey governor is making a play to grab the ARC money to help cover his state’s […]
[…] last we heard from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, he had recently announced a plan to borrow billions after quashing ARC over concerns over cost overruns. The federal government had asked Christie to […]