The tenuous fate of an estimated $8.7-billion trans-Hudson River rail tunnel exemplifies a dilemma faced by the American transportation industry as a whole: how to fund crucial megaprojects at a time when raising fuel taxes is political suicide and passing a multiyear transportation bill remains a pipe dream.
New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie (R) announced on Oct. 7 that he was killing the project, called Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) and in development for almost 20 years. But after a quickly arranged meeting with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff the next day in Trenton, Christie agreed to a two-week study of unspecified project “options.”