NEC Gateway Rail Project Commission created

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Great. Just what we need. Another committee. I thought this project, along with the conversion of the Post Office to new station facilities has been ongoing for years???
And more federal money to bail out New York, but we can't get the Sunset Limited restored to Florida?

To quote the hosts of Jeopardy - "I'm sorry, that's not a match!"
 
It isn't a study committee, it's an interstate agency to handle the project without going through the Port Authority.
 
I've been gone from the area for years. I spent 4 months in a TV truck parked on 33rd St where I could look down into The Cut. Fascinating, watching all the ballet of trains coming from the West.
Just got through Google Earth surfing - Wow! The NEP studios, in fact, the whole 33rd St block West of 10th Ave is gone, place is darn near unrecognizable.
I was apparently in error thinking the new trans Hudson tunnels were underway. Guess not. If another agency's creation kicks the project in the butt to get it started, for them a Mazel!
When one or the other of those old tunnels fail, it's gonna be bad. Indeed, they need to be augmented and repaired, but I'm not sure about all the Federal $$$ going just to the NEC, while the rest of the Amtrak system goes begging. Let the users pay as they go. I'd go for a little higher price to get the Sunset restored to Florida, raise the fares across the Hudson so the users pay for it!
 
drdumont said:
Great. Just what we need. Another committee. I thought this project, along with the conversion of the Post Office to new station facilities has been ongoing for years???
And more federal money to bail out New York, but we can't get the Sunset Limited restored to Florida?

To quote the hosts of Jeopardy - "I'm sorry, that's not a match!"
Click to expand...

New York and New Jersey (and 8 other states) pay more in federal taxes than they receive in federal spending, so no, federal infrastructure spending in the NY/NJ area is not a federal bail out of New York.

Not to mention, this particular story is just about a bi-state commission being set up to oversee the project, not about any specific federal (or state/local) funding being committed to the project.
 
drdumont said:
Great. Just what we need. Another committee. I thought this project, along with the conversion of the Post Office to new station facilities has been ongoing for years???
And more federal money to bail out New York, but we can't get the Sunset Limited restored to Florida?

To quote the hosts of Jeopardy - "I'm sorry, that's not a match!"
Click to expand...
NY and NJ have all offered to contribute to the project, at one point they even offered to pay half the the cost of the project if the Federal Government picks up the rest. What exactly have the majority of the states along the Sunset East offered to contribute? The few paltry millions they offered to give is literally a rounding error.
 
Dunno... I see tons and tons of appropriations of Federal dough going to the Northeast Corridor, and not much going to the rest of the country. I'm sure the residents of states which don't have Amtrak service are happy to be sending their money to the Northeast Corridor.
I've nothing against NJ, PA, MA, or even DC, but would like to see more of that Federal money used for the folks who send it in.
I'm sure I will get all kinds of flak about the importance of the Northeast, how the world would cease to turn if New York were to shut down. If you like living there, fine. Enjoy. I just don't want to be bled white for your convenience.
 
drdumont said:
Dunno... I see tons and tons of appropriations of Federal dough going to the Northeast Corridor, and not much going to the rest of the country. I'm sure the residents of states which don't have Amtrak service are happy to be sending their money to the Northeast Corridor.
I've nothing against NJ, PA, MA, or even DC, but would like to see more of that Federal money used for the folks who send it in.
I'm sure I will get all kinds of flak about the importance of the Northeast, how the world would cease to turn if New York were to shut down. If you like living there, fine. Enjoy. I just don't want to be bled white for your convenience.
Click to expand...

It does help that in those two states they have Senators and House Members who are actively working to get money to the NEC. It's not like the Senators from the Southern States are exactly pro Amtrak. Richard Shelby is anti LD trains. https://www.shelby.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/newsreleases?ID=2498A7F7-4ED6-4EE3-BC50-83EDFF11C78E Pretty sure, Ted Cruz, the senator from your state has said some not so flattering things about Amtrak as well.
 
drdumont said:
Dunno... I see tons and tons of appropriations of Federal dough going to the Northeast Corridor, and not much going to the rest of the country. I'm sure the residents of states which don't have Amtrak service are happy to be sending their money to the Northeast Corridor.
I've nothing against NJ, PA, MA, or even DC, but would like to see more of that Federal money used for the folks who send it in.
I'm sure I will get all kinds of flak about the importance of the Northeast, how the world would cease to turn if New York were to shut down. If you like living there, fine. Enjoy. I just don't want to be bled white for your convenience.
Click to expand...
Actually the NEC States contribute more than enough in the net to the federal kitty to pay for the NEC (say about $50 billion over 20 years) and then some. So your idea that somehow there would be no money for NEC if Alabama, Louisiana and Florida residents did not contribute is not really founded on facts. So please give it a rest.

Also keep in mind that in the Amtrak budget, the purported NEC appropriation is considerably less than the (non-NEC) national appropriation.

And just for matter of disclosure, I live in Florida, the land that cannot find adequate funding for reasonable passenger service, and refuses to spend money given to them, returning the money unused instead (which then got disbursed on the NEC and in California), and fights tooth and nail against a private company that wants to run passenger trains on property that they already own and operate trains on. Do these nimrods really deserve to have any passenger service, is the question one should ask first.
 
Anderson said:
Also...I've never known of "that's not a match" to be an Alex Trebek saying.
Click to expand...

drdumont said:
Duhhh... I was thinking of Concentration, dating back to years BC (Before Color)
Click to expand...

Alex Trebek did host a version of "Concentration" (titled "Classic Concentration") that ran in the late '80s and early '90s.

But the "Concentration" catchphrase was "not a match, the board goes back," which was something its original host Hugh Downs said, referring to its mechanical puzzle board -- the Alex Trebek version used computer graphics, so he never really said "the board goes back."
 
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drdumont said:
Great. Just what we need. Another committee. I thought this project, along with the conversion of the Post Office to new station facilities has been ongoing for years???
And more federal money to bail out New York, but we can't get the Sunset Limited restored to Florida?
Click to expand...

Uh, this project is about maintaining a transportation link that serves the largest city in the country. The intercity portion makes up a major market share of the passenger traffic between the nation's political capital and its financial capital, and several large metropolitan areas in between. This is in addition to the zillions of commuters who need the tunnel to get to work in the nation's largest city (which also happens to be the nation's, and the world's, financial capital.) If the link were to be broken, I suspect that the US economy would be negatively affected, not to mention that the bridges and tunnels across the Hudson would be gridlocked, and the ferries would be overloaded to the point of water sloshing over the gunwales. :)

In the scheme of priorities, I would think that this project would take precedence over extending a secondary 3 times a week long distance train. This is especially true considering that the states involved (Mississippi, Alabama and Florida) don't appear to have any interest in either funding it or pushing their members of Congress for federal funding. This is in addition to the fact, as has been pointed out by others here, that the NEC states put a lot of their own money into the NEC.
 
drdumont said:
I'm sure I will get all kinds of flak about the importance of the Northeast, how the world would cease to turn if New York were to shut down. If you like living there, fine. Enjoy. I just don't want to be bled white for your convenience.
Click to expand...

Isn't it interesting...I counted about five responses to your comment....and not a single one of them seems to be from New York.....:)
 
Honestly, Virginia is also pushing for Gateway since the loss of the Hudson tunnels would seriously mess up VA's train service (all of our trains go to either New York or Boston) and with it, wreck the financials on those trains (generally, New York is behind DC for major destinations...but for all of the state's biggest stations it's right up there). It is the #2 destination for pax from RVR, CVS, ALX, and LYH; it is actually #1 for FBG. And in many of those cases, it is #1 for revenue (ahead of WAS). So my best guess is that you'd be looking at a double-digit percentage hit to ridership and perhaps a 20-30% hit to revenue. That would really mess up VA's plans.

Likewise, cutting off the five SB LD trains from NYP would also probably hose their numbers pretty horribly.
 

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