Matthew Schuerman

(Matthew Schuerman, WNYC) Talks between Amtrak and New Jersey Transit over an abandoned commuter train tunnel have broken down just two weeks after they began.

The two parties began discussions late last month, shortly after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie abandoned the tunnel over cost concerns. The talks addressed, among other issues, whether Amtrak would be willing to buy land that New Jersey Transit had acquired to construct the tunnel—and which the state may try to sell in order to recoup some of the $600 million that’s been spent on the project so far.

“Those talks have concluded and at this point Amtrak is not in talks to revive that tunnel project nor use the property for high speed rail initiatives,” Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole said.

A spokesman for New Jersey Transit, Paul Wyckoff, said, “We’re all interested in exploring affordable alternatives to the trans-Hudson challenge.”

Christie canceled the Access to the Region's Core tunnel last month because he didn't want New Jersey to be primarily responsible for cost overruns on the $10 billion to $13 billion project.

The governor is fighting with the Obama administration over just how much money it needs to reimburse the federal government for money that’s been spent on the project, now that it won’t go forward. The U.S. Department of Transportation this week billed the state for $271 million but New Jersey Transit disputes the amount.

Talks between Amtrak and New Jersey Transit over an abandoned commuter train tunnel have broken down just two weeks after they began.

The Long Island Rail Road is again advising most of its riders to avoid taking the train unless they need to for "essential business."

The city's experiment to get commuter vans to provide service along former bus routes is off to a rough start.

 

A new poll finds that among New Jersey residents who were asked, a majority support Gov. Chris Christie's decision to kill the Hudson River rail tunnel project.

Now that New Jersey Govenor Chris Christie has cancelled the ARC tunnel project under the Hudson River once and for all, state agencies will begin to undo the work of the past year and a half.

Gov. Christie cancels the ARC Tunnel for a second time.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie killed a new train tunnel project under the Hudson River for a second time. "This decision is final," Christies said at a news conference Wednesday ...

Gov. Christie first canceled the $8.7 billion tunnel first on October 7, citing potential cost overruns for which he said the state had no way to pay. The following day, he agreed ...

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(New York — Matthew Schuerman, WNYC) New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was half-expected to make his "final" final announcement on the fate of the Access to the Region's Core train tunnel under the Hudson River, but Michael Drewniak, his spokesman, says there won't be anything today. Is that good news or bad for transit watchers and supporters of the project?

Back on Oct. 8, Christie agreed to spend another two weeks looking at ways to salvage the ARC project—and for those doing the math, that time period expired Friday. But the governor's aides say that wasn't a deadline for an announcement, and that Christie has been studying the alternatives since then, including those put forth by the head of NJ Transit, Jim Weinstein and a working group made up of federal and state officials.

Of course, the confirmation Friday by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that ARC could indeed go billions of dollars over budget—and Christie's  reaction—are not giving supporters of the project much hope that Christie will change his mind. Tomorrow is, however, another day.

(New York -- Matthew Schuerman, WNYC) Governor Chris Christie is taking new federal estimates of the Hudson River train tunnel as confirmation the project’s way off budget.

“Secretary LaHood confirmed today what we knew two weeks ago,” Christie’s press secretary, Michael Drewniak, said in an e-mail. “The ARC Tunnel project is over budget and puts New Jersey taxpayers at risk of being saddled with billions of dollars in added costs.”

LaHood earlier today released revised federal estimates that put the likely cost for the Access to the Region’s Core Tunnel between $9.775 billion to $12.708 billion.

That’s $1 billion to $4 billion over the $8.7 budget for the project.

That’s still a little shy of Christie’s contention, as voiced earlier this week that the tunnel is “running $2 to $5 billion over its original budgeted estimate.”

(Christie’s office says he is counting the $775 million needed to redo the Portal Bridge, a necessary component. Still, the bridge was never included in the $8.7 billion estimate.)

But it’s pretty close.

LaHood’s statement though emphasized the low end of that range.

“DOT is committed to working together through the life of the project to keep costs down to the lowest estimate,” he said.

Christie, meanwhile, is emphasizing the high end.

“Critics who seem to be using the moment for political advantage need to answer the question that remains today and was brought into focus by Secretary LaHood: how would they pay for potentially billions of dollars in cost overruns?” his press secretary said.

Still, Christie’s expected to spend this weekend studying recommendations from the federal and state working group that was set up two weeks ago.

This weekend, prepare to see the busiest commuter railroad in the country without two-thirds of its service.

The federal government has publicly revised its estimate for how much the Hudson River tunnel might cost. This comes two weeks after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie cancelled the planned train tunnel citing federal estimates that the project could cost up to $5 billion over budget.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was expected to make his final decision on the Access to the Region’s Core (ARC)  train tunnel under the Hudson River Friday, but it’s increasingly unclear whether that will happen.

A top New Jersey Democrat says he's combed through the hundreds of pages that led Governor Chris Christie to dump the A.R.C. train tunnel under the Hudson River and found no justification for it.

(New York -- Matthew Schuerman, WNYC)  A top New Jersey Democrats says he's combed through the hundreds of pages that led Governor Chris Christie to dump the ARC train tunnel under the Hudson River and found no justification for it.

"The documents provided by the governor’s own administration fail to provide any justification for the governor’s claim of billions in cost overruns on the tunnel project," Assemblyman John Wisniewski, head of the Assembly's Transportation Committee said in a press release this afternoon. “That claim seems as though it was simply pulled out of thin air by the governor."

Wisniewski got roughly 400 pages of documents Wednesday from the governor's office through a freedom of information request. The Democrat said that three reports on cost estimates that were included state, "The overall project remains within budget," and repeat that the budget remains at $8.7 billion.

Christie, a Republican, canceled the tunnel two weeks ago, saying that internal reports pointed towards as much as $5 billion in cost overruns  and that he wasn't about to pass those costs on to New Jersey taxpayers.

Christie's office hasn't responded to a request for comment. Those wishing to pore through the documents themselves can find them on the assemblyman's web site.

UPDATE, 5:30 p.m. : Christie's office says the documents that Wisniewski reviewed are only the first batch of many that he will receive under his information request.

The LIRR will run just one-third the number of trains it usually does this week and large parts of the network will be out of service completely, to be replaced with subways or shut...