Fed slam on tunnel plan

ALBANY — The Trump administration on Friday delivered what could be a crippling blow to the mammoth multibillion-dollar project to build a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River.

In a letter to New York and New Jersey officials, a top Federal Transit Administration official signaled that the Trump administration would not recognize the agreement struck under former President Barack Obama that called for the federal government to pay half the cost of the project.

“There is no such agreement,” FTA Deputy Administrator Jane Williams wrote in the letter.

“We consider it unhelpful to reference a nonexistent ‘agreement’ rather than directly address the responsibility for funding a local project where nine out of 10 passengers are local transit riders,” Williams continued.

New York officials accused the Trump administration of posturing.

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“There is no more urgent infrastructure project than Gateway, and posturing aside we are confident that the Trump administration will engage with us as the President turns to infrastructure in 2018,” said a spokesman for the Gateway Program Development Corp., the entity created by the two states to undertake the project.

Under the Obama-era agreement, the federal government was to pay for half the project and New York, New Jersey and the Port Authority were to pay the rest.

Williams’ letter comes barely two weeks after Gov. Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie revealed a framework for paying their share of the $12.7 billion project. It called for New York to provide $1.75 billion, New Jersey Transit to pay $1.9 billion and the Port Authority to pay $1.9 billion.

The Gateway Program includes the construction of two tubes under the Hudson River for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains. The tubes would allow for repairs to the existing tunnels, which Hurricane Sandy damaged.

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