ARC cancellation sparks discontent among US, state leaders
Both federal and New Jersey politicians are voicing their disappointment after Gov. Chris Christie announced Wednesday the cancellation of the Access to the Region's Core project because of financial complications.
In a statement from the governor's office, Christie said the $10.9 to $13.7 billion estimate to build the trans-Hudson River tunnel for public transportation would prove too costly for the economic climate in New Jersey and would be fiscally irresponsible.
"The potential for $2 [to] $5 billion cost overruns was something that was unacceptable for me to contemplate, knowing that it was just the beginning, potentially, of what this project would cost," he said in the statement.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood attempted to work with Christie on the ARC project, providing an additional $378 million in federal funding. But after paying respect to LaHood, Christie said his decision to cancel the project was unchanged.
"Nothing in the last two weeks has changed that, and so in the end what the proponents of this plan are asking me to do, on behalf of citizens of this state, is to hand them over a blank check," he said in the statement.
In response to the governor's decision, LaHood told the Associated Press the cancellation on a chance to improve New Jersey's economy was a "devastating blow."
"The governor's decision to stop work on this project means commuters — who would have saved 45 minutes each day thanks to the ARC tunnel — will instead see no end to traffic congestion and ever-longer wait times on train platforms," he told the AP.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., a key supporter for the ARC project, issued a statement Wednesday calling Christie's decision a tragic day in New Jersey's history and said the governor planned to eliminate the project from the beginning.
"He killed the prospect for improving New Jersey's economy and creating thousands of new jobs," he said in the statement. "He increased the amount of toxic fumes that will be discharged from idling cars stuck in traffic, and he took away an opportunity for New Jersey housing values to go up."
Lautenberg added New Jersey Transit is healing from a minor derailment that occurred Monday and a summer containing 1,400 traffic delays, calling it one of the worst in recent memory.
Politicians are not the only ones who are frustrated with the governor's decision. Many transportation advocates are up in arms with the loss of the ARC project.
Zoe Baldwin, a spokeswoman for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, said the ARC project would have benefited the region in many ways, first of which by alleviating traffic crossing the Hudson River.
"Our rail lines and our roadways are at capacity going into the state and the best way to free up people's commute to make it easier is to get these tunnels," she said. "[With that], we can put more trains through, increase the transit ridership and take an estimated 22,000 cars off the roadway."
By taking a large number of vehicles off public roadways, 66,000 tons of carbon emissions would be removed from the air each year, Baldwin said. But she added the significance of the tunnel rides with the benefits for the state's economy.
"In the immediate term, it would create about 6,000 construction jobs in an incredibly dry economy. We need to get people to work," Baldwin said. "We need to make sure that we're protecting the economic viability of the state and job creation is the way to do that."
The creation of the ARC tunnel would lead to transit-oriented development around train stops, citing New Brunswick as an example to show how this can provide economic vitality for local businesses, Baldwin said.
After Christie announced the cancellation of the project, Baldwin said these economic opportunities were lost, and he could not foresee the project coming to fruition in the near future.
"You are not going to see this come back for a generation," she said. "To get the situation where we have the project ready for that again … is going to take decades."
Baldwin added the governor's repeated reference of "dollars and cents" as being the problem did nothing to solve the transportation problem in New Jersey.
"So this is the challenge to [the governor] — how do we deal with this and how do we make sure that people and goods can move freely about the state when we have a broken transportation funding system and we've just killed the most important public transit project in generations?" she said.
Although economics played a significant part in Christie's decision, John Weingart, associate director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics, explained how politics played into the cancellation of the ARC project.
Weingart said although policy reasons influenced the decision of the governor, it is unusual for an elected official to stop an advanced and major project such as the ARC project.
"By doing that, Gov. Christie was sending a signal, consistent with the way he's been governing, that he is going to be extremely vigilant about limiting state financial obligations," he said. "I think it politically, in the short-term, bolsters the image that Gov. Christie has been building."
But by improving his image in New Jersey, Weingart said the governor also alienated the mass amount of supporters who deemed the project to be finalized. This doesn't mean it was politically wrong though, he said.
"It was very good politics to raise the issue," Weingart said. "Either he was going to be able to cut a better deal, save the taxpayers' money and then get deserved credit for doing that, or he was going to kill the project and, at least in the short-term, save taxpayers' money."
Weingart added Christie is using the power as governor to a degree that has not been seen in New Jersey for decades.
Weingart did not count the project as being completely nullified, saying just as there are no final victories in politics, there are no final defeats.
"There were a lot of people with powerful interests who believe it is a good project and conceivably it can rise again," he said. "It could rise again where the Port Authority [of New York and New Jersey], New York City, New York State and others could contribute in a way that would make it acceptable to Christie."
