Readers of New Jersey’s largest business publication, NJBIZ, overwhelmingly disapprove of Gov. Christie’s move to cancel the Access to the Region’s Core project. 60% called the cancellation of the NJ-NYC rail tunnel a “bad move,” with another 10% saying it was “an example of Christie overstepping his bounds.”
But local editorial boards were glad to see the governor agree to work with federal officials to try to find a way to salvage the project. The Trenton Times wrote on Sunday:
For at least 50 years, there has been widespread agreement on the need for a modern portal to New York City, its jobs and commerce. Garden State commuters are now crammed and cramped into 23 trains per hour during peak periods, the most that can run through a pair of century-old tunnels built by the old Pennsylvania Railroad in 1910.
Instead of just washing his hands of the project, we’re glad to see Gov. Christie take a step back and reconsider what’s already been invested in this project and how it might proceed. There are indeed options: Identify the cost overruns — and their causes — and rein them in. Renegotiate contracts for future work to bring the total costs more into line. It makes no sense to quit a project with the potential to help so many commuters, workers and taxpayers.
Meanwhile, politicians from other states are salivating at the prospect of the $3 billion in federal funds New Jersey would lose if the project is canceled. “It boggles my mind that a state could refuse that kind of investment,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told Bloomberg News earlier this week. “California, particularly Los Angeles, is ready to fill the void.” Villaraigosa, who is pushing an ambitious transit plan for his city, visited the White House on Monday with other state and local officials to discuss the country’s infrastructure needs.
NJ residents can tell Gov. Christie and their state and federal representatives that they support the project at a new URL: www.WeNeedARC.com.
The governor pulled the $2 – $5 billion over budget figure out of thin air. His office never actually conducted a legitimate study of the potential cost overruns when he ordered a thirty day halt to ARC. The Feds presented New Jersey with a very wide range of potential cost overruns and Governor Christie’s people basically looked at the mid range and said that’s what they were going with. I know for a fact that they never ordered people at NJT and the PA to study the potential cost overruns that the feds presented to him. The reality is the potential is more likely below $1 billion and cost savings could have been found to decrease it further.
Furthermore, the governor’s unilateral decision will wind up costing us many billions of dollars more down the road because eventually, this tunnel and expansion of Penn Station will happen. It must. We’re at capacity right now yet demand for service continues to grow. If the project doesn’t move forward, we risk having a rail system that closely resembles India where people are crammed into trains and hang out of doors of trains as they fly by.
But there has never been a better time to start a major infrastructure project than now. Read the reports on ARC. Bids for contracts have been coming in at as much as 20% below expectations. Why? Because the economy is so bad and this is the only game in town. Construction companies have no other big projects to work on and they’re dying to take on ARC. They’ll do it for much less than they would have during good economic times and they’re bidding low by cutting down their profit margins.
We already know that any cost overruns could easily be paid for down the road by a modest increase in the gasoline tax, an increase that every transportation expert agrees New Jersey needs to enact!
If governor Christie was so concerned about the economic future of our state, he would see the wisdom of moving foward with ARC as a way for the state to grow in many different areas. Instead, he’s choosing to do something that benefits no one but himself and his poltical career. He lacks vision. It’s sad that he was the only alternative to former governor Corzine.
If the current governor really wanted to eliminate wasteful spending, he’d fix our corrupt governmental system in which elected officials are allowed to hold two seats, a local elected position and one in the state legislature. It’s an inherint conflict of interest that results in wasteful spending in legislator’s home communities.
Also, the governor isn’t doing anything in the way of working with the feds to find a compromise. He’s sitting on his hands.