Posted on 08/22/2015 8:05:46 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
It may have escaped the attention of Baltimoreans but things have gotten a little testy in the New York-New Jersey area in recent weeks over the state of century-old rail tunnels running under the Hudson River. The deteriorating condition of the tunnels is threatening Amtrak and other rail service, but how to pay for a $14 billion-plus replacement has proven a challenge.
Unfortunately, that's not just a problem for New York City but for Baltimore and other stops along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, the nation's most heavily traveled railway handling more than 750,000 passengers a day. The stations in Baltimore and at Baltimore-Washington International-Thurgood Marshall Airport are the 8th and 12th busiest in the nation, providing an important link to jobs and other economic opportunities from Washington to Boston.
Should one of the existing Hudson River tunnels be closed for repair, the consequences for the entire corridor — and perhaps for the nation's economy — would be significant. Yet Govs. Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie says it's up to the federal government to come up with most of the money (Mr. Cuomo has used the term, "lion's share") while federal Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has observed that the states haven't even stepped up with a proposal for a new tunnel, a necessary first step before funding can be contemplated.
Yet for all the back and forth jousting in and around the Big Apple, the Amtrak infrastructure problem is actually much larger than what lies underneath the Hudson River. As long as Mr. Foxx is looking at fixes, he needs to be looking for solutions for the entire Northeast Corridor, a project advocates say could cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $52 billion just to bring the system into good repair, let alone improve speeds.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Put them on a ferry boat. Use the Badger.
The Bald Eagle has no more hair to be cut!
Stay home and use iChat.
Let the free market decide.
Move to France and use the Jihad Trains.
Baltimoreans? When I was a young skull full of mush growing up south of there I thought they wuz called ‘Baltimorons.’
Didn’t we spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure repairs a few years ago?
Who would have thought it would be hard to find money to support infrastructure when more than half the people in the country were on some kind of government assistance?
If we quit subsidizing the beltway crowd and the other millionaire politicians that constitute the majority of the riders in the Northeast and allow Amtrak either die on the vine or revert back to private control, we would not have this problem.
I think the railroads could and would find a way to make passenger service profitable. Without the drama we have now.
Yes, I believe in the old days, the “soup kitchens” were generally set up right in the work camps and the poor people paid for the food with labor. In part, that’s how the cathedrals were built (corvee labor), and (much later) how the railroads were built.
Why should flyover country taxpayers clean up that mess?
Shovel-ready ones, at that.
Only one way to do this, free the American economy from the destructive hands of Obama & His “Hate America” Democrat Party....put someone like Trump, Cruz, Carson or Fiorina in as POTUs....and grow the USA economy private sector. Obama has destroyed both the country and the Democrat Party!!! And....get rid of McConnell & Boehner, immediately, the loyal Republican butt kissers of Obama!!!
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
I have no idea if that is true, but this article kind of puts the lie to that way of thinking.
If $52 billion is needed to fix what 750,000 commuters use daily, that is $69,333 per commuter, or over $1000 per year over the course of each commuter's expected commuting lifespan (generously estimated by me at 50 years).
Could it be that these commuters are in fact underpaying for their Amtrak service?
The United States has been consuming it’s accumulated capital to fund it’s bread and circuses for fifty years now, and the chickens are coming home to roost.
It ain’t fun to be dead broke, out of gas, running on bald tires and now some slick talking “cash for paper” artist is holding your car title.
Welcome to the United States circa 2015, and GOOD LUCK, KIDS! I hope you guys can get it all worked out before the grandkids get stuck with the rubble.
Make no mistake, the country needs a new tunnel under the Hudson River -- just as it was needed five years ago when Mr. Christie unwisely canceled an earlier tunnel plan and raided the $3 billion fund set aside for it.
Canceling that rail tunnel project was the smartest thing Christie ever did as governor. Several reasons why this is so:
1. The tunnel was going to funding mostly by New Jersey taxpayers, and yet the biggest beneficiaries of the new tunnel would be New York City real estate developers on the west side of Manhattan, along with New York City and New York State (where commuters from New Jersey would pay their income taxes). None of these beneficiaries was paying a penny for the new tunnel.
2. That tunnel design was a disaster. Even its staunchest supporters recognized that it was badly flawed because it terminated in Manhattan and would not provide any connections to the east (for rail service through Manhattan and for New Jersey Transit to move trains from Penn Station to its storage yard in Queens). The proposed AMTRAK tunnel is a superior design because it isn't hampered by these limitations.
This is exactly why there is no political will to fix this part of the "crumbling infrastructure" that is lamented in this stupid article. A constituency of 750,000 in a nation of more than 300 million people means the vast majority of Americans simply don't give a sh!t if that portion of the rail system falls apart.
If $52 billion is needed to fix what 750,000 commuters use daily, that is $69,333 per commuter, or over $1000 per year over the course of each commuter’s expected commuting lifespan (generously estimated by me at 50 years).
Could it be that these commuters are in fact underpaying for their Amtrak service?
...
$53 billion will turn into $500 billion by the time the politicians and their cronies get done stealing. Save half a trillion by shutting the boondoggle down and letting the market take over.
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