Dear Editor:
You recently reported in all editions of the Hudson Reporter that work has begun on a $9 billion dollar trans-Hudson passenger rail tunnel for the ARC (Access to Region’s Core) program. It is appalling that NJ Transit and the Port Authority are allowed to squander billions of dollars on this poorly designed tunnel to nowhere. This tunnel will come to a dead end under 34th St. in Manhattan, 20 stories below the surface. It will not connect to Penn Station or other public transit facilities. Nor will it connect to Grand Central Station, one of the tunnel’s original objectives. Train riders will have to scramble thru a maze of tunnels and escalators to reach the surface or make other transit connections.
I am dismayed that Governor Corzine, Senator Lautenberg, Senator Menendez, and the transit advocacy group Tri-State Transportation Campaign have been inveigled into supporting this project. I am sympathetic to Senator Lautenberg’s homeland security concerns motivating his support for the ARC tunnel. The ARC tunnel, however, will not adequately address those concerns and will likely create new vulnerabilities.
A far cheaper, more effective, and quicker construction alternative would be to extend NYC’s No. 7 subway line west to Port Authority Bus Terminal, Lincoln Harbor (Weehawken) and, above ground across the Meadowlands to Secaucus Transfer. This would allow New Jersey riders to bypass the Lincoln
Tunnel and head directly for the PA Bus Terminal or Grand Central Station. Compared to ARC, it can be built in half the time at half the cost. Please see a detailed description of this alternative proposal at
www.SubwayToSecaucus.com
Sincerely,
Steve Lanset