Feds commit $6.8B for new Hudson River tunnels, potential opening by 2035

The federal government has vowed to put up $6.88 billion for New York and New Jersey’s plan to build two new rail tunnels beneath the Hudson River, Sen. Chuck Schumer announced on Thursday.

The funding covers less than half of the project’s estimated $16.8 billion cost — but the commitment represents the largest federal grant ever given for a U.S. mass transit project. New York and New Jersey have already agreed to split the remaining cost.

The project also includes work to repair the two existing Hudson River rail tunnels, which were damaged in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy. Officials in both states have, for a decade, said the new tubes must be built in order to close the existing ones for repairs.

And without the new infrastructure, elected leaders and transit experts warn there could be catastrophic consequences for the crucial Northeast Corridor.

“Everyone across the country agrees if the tunnels that cross the Hudson collapse or are unusable, our whole economy goes into turmoil,” Schumer said during a news conference. "The $6.88 billion is critical fuel … It is all systems go.”

The Gateway Development Commission — the bi-state agency overseeing the work — said some construction on the new tunnels started this year and they’re expected to open for service in 2035, roughly 12 years from now. That’s five years longer than it took the Pennsylvania Railroad to build the existing tubes, which were dug out from 1903 to 1910 without the help of modern tunneling machines.

After the new tunnels are finished, the commission plans to close the existing tunnels one at a time — and expects to finish rehabilitating them by 2038. When that work is complete, officials say they’ll have the option to double the number of NJ Transit and Amtrak trains that run between New York and New Jersey.

Brian Fritsch, head of the Build Gateway Now Coalition, an arm of the Regional Plan Association, said the funding guarantees construction will continue this year.

“This is one of the most significant steps forward for the Gateway Program to date,” he said in a statement. “RPA’s research demonstrates that once this project is completed, demand for this service will surpass pre-COVID levels of ridership.”

The Gateway Development Commission moved forward with the plan to fix the old tunnels only after the new ones are completed, despite a 2020 report commissioned by the agency that found the damaged tunnels could be repaired on nights and weekends without affecting train service.

The new tunnels are designed to send trains into a new, expanded area of Penn Station just south of West 31st Street. The expansion would require the demolition of a city block — dubbed “Block 780” — which has not yet been approved and faces fierce pushback from local neighborhood groups.

In announcing the federal grant on Thursday, Schumer declined to say whether he supports the plan to raze a block in Midtown for the expansion of Penn Station.

The forward progress on the tunnel project comes nearly 13 years after former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie cut funding from a previous Hudson River tunnel plan called ARC, effectively killing the project.

“This is the plan that everyone thinks works best,” Schumer said on Thursday. “We can always start over again. We’ve done that three times, and then we’ll never get Gateway done.”

Schumer also blamed former President Donald Trump for delays in the project’s approval.

“At one point President Trump said, ‘If you give me the [border] wall, maybe I’ll give you Gateway,’” said Schumer. “That was the kind of games he played, but we’re not seeing that from [the Biden] administration.”

The funding commitment means the Gateway Development Commission can receive no more than $6.88 billion in federal “capital investment grants” for the project. Schumer said he would look into other sources of federal funding for the project.

The tunnel project is part of a larger initiative called the Gateway Program, which includes more than $45 billion worth of projects intended to upgrade aging railroad infrastructure in and around New York City.