Keeping money flowing
Maintaining federal funds for project key, leaders says
By: Colleen Wilson
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... In the several weeks that he's been on the job leading to Gateway Development Commission - which oversees a $16 billion rail tunnel project between North Jersey and Manhattan - Thomas Prendergast has met with the agency's 40 staff members and the groups of consultants providing project management and engineering.
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But there's one key stakeholder he still hopes to speak with: Seam Duffy, the new secretary of the U.S. Transpiration Department.
..... "It's a priority for us to engage with the administration as soon as they're ready to do that," Prendergast said. "I can't give you a date certain when we'll meet, but it;s in the highest category of importance."
..... The press office for the Transpiration Department did not respond to a request for comment.
..... The tunnel construction program Prendergast now oversees relies on about $12 billion in approved federal funding. The bistate agency has not experienced any problems drawing down those funds so far, Prendergast said, despite the chaos that followed Pres dint Donald Trump's recent executive order to freeze federal aid.
..... In an exchange during Duffy's confirmation process, New Jersey's Senators Andy Kim asked him to commit to support funding for "big, durable projects that connect our nation," specifically Gateway.
..... Duffy said, "I appreciate in our conversation you brought up the Gateway, among other things, and again I want to look at what funding has gone out, but I imagine those good projects that are underway we would continue."
..... The project is designed to improve the reliability of train service for NJ Transit and Amtrak riders along the Northeast Corridor, the busiest passenger rail route in the U.S.
Where does Trump stand on Gateway tunnel project?
..... It's unclear where Trump stands on the Gateway program. During his first term, he was accused of delaying the approval of its federal funding to retaliate against Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
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And although he hasn't made recent public comments on Gateway, Trump did tell New York Governor Kathy Hochul in November [2024] that he wanted to make New York Penn Station "beautiful" again, the New York Post reported.
..... Plans to re-imagine New York Penn Station and build an extension with additional tracks are projects that go hand-in-hand with the gateway program, which involves building a new two-track train tunnel beneath the Hudson River repairing the current tunnel, which is more than a century old and was severally damaged by Superstorm Sandy.
..... Prendergast said that when he was president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, he had a good working relationship with Marc Molinaro, who at that time was county executive of Dutches County in New York Molinaro was recently nominated to become administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, which is the main federal agency working with the Gateway commission.
..... Prendergast said he hasn't spoken to Molinaro yet, but conversations at the regional FTA level continue.
..... "There are commitments made for regular meetings and status reports to occur - those have been ongoing," Prendergast said.
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It's too spoon to say whether cuts in staffing at federal agencies, such as the FTA, will have an impact on the Gateway program and its ability to stay on time and on budget.
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"We'll keep our eye on it to the extent that if something were to occur, to cause a delay or slowdown, we would respond quickly and try to resolve it," Prendergast said, noting an oft-repeated estimate that for every day the Gateway program is delayed, its cost goes up $1million.
..... "We don't want to have a single day's delay, let along a 20-day delay, because those add up over time, but being aware of them and then making sure that we are responsive to whatever asks that are being made to us, to get past it so we can just get back on track."
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Molinaro did not respond to requests for comment.
.... Asked how he would pitch the Trump administration supporting Gateway if it came to that, Prendergast summed it up in three topics: jobs, the economy and the improved reliability of the transportation network.
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"if you take a look at the Northeast Corridor form Washington, D.C., all the way up to Boston, three is a lot of business being done, there;s a lot of tourist travel being done, there's a lot of banking being done, there's a lot of need for people to go to some place and meet people,' Prendergast said.
..... "It isn't just the business economy," he said, "it's the jobs that put money in people's pockets, so they can have the standard of living that their families expect."