Port Authority Cool to New Hudson Tunnel Talks

The Port Authority is playing hard to get when it comes to a request to meet with the U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx over a proposed tunnel under the Hudson River.

Foxx asked Governors Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo to meet about the tunnel Monday, after a grueling week of delays on NJ Transit trains due to electrical problems. Such problems seem to be getting more frequent since Sandy inundated the sole train tunnel under the river with salt water. 

But on Tuesday it was the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which the governors control in a shaky power-sharing arrangement, wrote back, even though he was not addressed in the original letter. 

The new tunnel, nicknamed the Gateway Project, was conceived after Christie killed the ARC Tunnel, an earlier train tunnel that would have been controlled by NJ Transit. Christie had two quibbles. First, while the federal government was going to pay about $3 billion of the cost, it would not guarantee cost overruns. Second, New York was not pitching in any money, even though Metropolitan Transportation Authority customers rely on NJ Transit trains to get to Rockland and Orange counties and even though New Jersey commuters pay New York state taxes on income earned in the Empire State.

The letter by Port Authority Chairman John Degnan letter was testy, at one point noting that the U.S. transportation secretary had failed to accept the Port Authority’s invitation to speak at a special transportation summit in May that it co-hosted. (Foxx sent his undersecretary, Peter Rogoff, instead.)

At another point, Degnan wrote, “If discussions aimed at furthering this project are to be fruitful, we need to better understand whether adequate funding can now be made available to move this project forward.” Degnan also said the Port Authority “would obviously” need the federal government to expedite the environmental review process to get the project done quickly.

What made the letter even stranger was that it was sent out to the press several hours after Christie, campaigning in New Hampshire for the Republican nomination for president, breezily accepted Foxx’s invitation for a sit-down. And Christie said he had just talked to Cuomo about it.

“Andrew and I had a good talk last night,” he said. “We're both happy to sit down with the secretary if we're going to have a real conversation about how this is gonna be funded and the equity to both states and the people of the region.”

In an emailed comment from his press office, Cuomo said, "The tunnel is a crucially important project for the region, but also a very expensive one without a funding stream. I’m hopeful the federal government is willing to step up to the plate so we can make this project a reality like we have so many other important infrastructure projects in New York.”

   Port Authority Chairman's Response to Foxx Invitation