Hudson River Tunnel Project between New York and New Jersey

credit agreement executed

The Build America Bureau provided three Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) loans totaling up to $4.1 billion to the Gateway Development Commission (GDC) for the Hudson Tunnel Project between New York and New Jersey. The construction of the new $16 billion, 2.4-mile Hudson River Rail Tunnel is part of Phase 1 of the Gateway Program, a comprehensive investment program that will improve and expand rail service in the Northeast Corridor, the most heavily traveled passenger rail line in the country.  The Hudson Tunnel Project encompasses a range of components, including a new double-track tunnel between the Bergen Palisades in New Jersey and Manhattan in New York City, the rehabilitation of the North River Tunnel (NRT) damaged by Superstorm Sandy, and the creation of a concrete casing at Hudson Yards to allow the new tunnel to connect to New York-Penn Station. These elements will collectively enhance service reliability, modernize design, and mitigate the impact of future natural disasters, ensuring a seamless rail network. In 2019, the states of New York and New Jersey established the GDC to facilitate and coordinate the Gateway Program. GDC is the primary borrower for the three loans, with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Port Authority), New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit), and New York State backing $1.9 billion, $703.1 million, and $1.5 billion, respectively. Currently, the NRT is a bottleneck as the only passenger rail link that connects Manhattan with its western neighbors and regionally from Washington, D.C. to Boston. Repairing Superstorm Sandy damage would require closing each tube in the tunnel. Without building a second tunnel to keep full service running during repairs, operations would be sharply reduced and would cost more than $100 million a day due to the region’s 20 percent contribution to the national economy, with more than half of that cost in workers’ lost time and wages – an enormous impact that would reverberate throughout the U.S. When both the new tunnel and the rehabilitated tunnel open, estimated by 2038, the project will provide four, modern, 21st Century rail tubes increasing reliability, flexibility and operational redundancy for Amtrak and NJ Transit.  In addition, the project will provide the capability to significantly expand capacity in the future. Additional project benefits include improved health outcomes and lowered carbon emissions, safeguarding rail operations against future extreme weather events, new floodgates on both sides of the Hudson River, and a safer environment for first responders, maintenance workers, and the public, especially in the event of an evacuation. The project previously received several federal grants: Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) awarded a $3.8 billion grant from the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail (FSP) Grant Program; the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) awarded $6.88 billion through the Capital Investment Grant (CIG) Program and another $25 million grant.