NY-NJ Need a Tunnel Fallback

With Team Trump blocking funds for a new cross-Hudson train tunnel, it’s time for New York and New Jersey officials to draw up a Plan B.

The latest blow came Friday, with word that the administration ranks the tunnel a “medium-low” priority among national projects, making it ineligible for Capital Investment Grants from the Federal Transit Administration. And Deputy Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Rosen has made clear that neither the funding bill Trump signed last month nor his 2020 budget earmarks cash for the so-called Gateway tunnel.

“Those transit projects are local responsibilities,” Rosen said. Uh, no: The tunnel is part of a rail line controlled by federally funded Amtrak and serves the whole East Coast.

President Trump himself is clearly behind the outrageous holdup. But neither Albany nor Trenton can leave commuters hanging as the existing, 109-year-old Sandy-ravaged tunnel crumbles.

As the Regional Plan Association reported last month, even a partial shutdown of the trans-Hudson link will mean “dramatically expanded” travel times and “increased congestion . . . leading to increased business and consumer costs, job loss, home devaluation and health risks.”

A four-year closure, the RPA says, would zap the US economy by $16 billion and depress home values by $22 billion.

Sen. Chuck Schumer thinks his plan to have Congress promise to repay spending by New Jersey and New York will greenlight the project. But that requires both states to pony up the cash for now.

Reps. Pete King (R-NY) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) want a law to force Trump & Co. to draft a “doomsday plan” in case the tunnel collapses.

But both states need a plan of their own. The metro area will suffer most if the tunnel closes, so local officials need to step up.

Sooner or later, the tunnel’s going to go. Demanding that Washington take action just isn’t enough.