Cross-Harbor Rail Freight Tunnel: Move NY/NJ
Photo by Herman Yung
Move NY & NJ is a coalition of concerned leaders from the New York metropolitan area's business, labor, environmental, community and planning sectors dedicated to improving the region's freight transportation system through the construction of a Cross Harbor Rail Freight tunnel. The Tunnel is one of the most crucial infrastructure investments for our region's future growth and sustainability.
The Move NY & NJ Coalition was created in 2003 to promote the region's interests in Washington as Congress reauthorized the major federal transportation spending bill, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFE-TU LU). The coalition has been staffed by the Pratt Center since 2004, and in August 2005 $100 million for engineering and design was earmarked for the Tunnel in this bill. The Cross Harbor Rail Freight Tunnel will provide a Hudson River crossing to connect freight railroads in New Jersey to railroads in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Such a connection would enable freight to travel to east-of-Hudson destinations by rail, rather than truck. The Tunnel, which will be built under New York Harbor, will link the nation's rail system ending in New Jersey, with the existing Bay Ridge line.
The Tunnel will allow more goods to move by rail rather than by truck, and offers a safer, more efficient, sustainable way to move goods into and out of the City. The Tunnel will take as many as 1 million trucks a year off of New York City streets. These trucks will be removed from the streets of every borough, and will help to solve road congestion, reduce environmental health problems, such as asthma, and allow better movement of emergency vehicles and buses.
The New York Metropolitan region is the largest consumer market in the nation, and yet New York City is the only major city in the United States that isn't connected to the nation's rail system. As a result, nearly all of our goods enter and leave the City by truck. Over 90% of those goods come in over the George Washington Bridge and the amount of freight- from building materials to computers to produce- coming into the City will increase by nearly 80% in the next 20 years. This truck-dependence congests our roads, highways and bridges. That congestion results in terrible air pollution, the highest asthma rates and commuting times in the nation. The dependence on trucks also means that the cost of doing business in New York, and the cost of our consumer goods -- like food and clothing -- are all much higher than other areas of the country.
The Tunnel will also act as a key engine for economic growth by creating as many as 23,000 new long-term jobs in the five boroughs, almost 30,000 jobs in the region as well as an additional 1,000 construction jobs. Finally, the Tunnel will provide significant national security benefits by making sure that essential goods can move into and out of the City, even if the George Washington and Verrazano Narrows Bridges were closed to trucks.
