|
Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel Enjoys Solid Support in Brooklyn
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 18, 2007
By Raanan Geberer
An Old Idea Gets A New Push
BROOKLYN -- Angry residents of West Maspeth, Queens, more or less squelched a plan to build a railroad freight tunnel from Brooklyn to Staten Island or New Jersey in 2005.
But now the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has decided to take another look at the idea. Today, the Port Authority is expected to approve an allocation of $100 million to study ways to improve the movement of freight between New York and New Jersey -- of which the tunnel is one option.
The tunnel is an attempt to right an unusual situation -- that less than 3 percent of the metropolitan area's freight moves by rail, in contrast to many other areas of the country. Some freight is floated from Jersey City to Brooklyn by the Cross-Harbor Railroad, and some freight cars cross into New York State from New Jersey via a bridge near Albany.
As more and more people have become concerned about pollution, rising rates of asthma and truck traffic choking streets like Atlantic Avenue -- especially today's huge 18-wheelers -- interest in the tunnel has grown. Since the 1990s, one man -- Congressman Jerrold Nadler, D-Brooklyn/Manhattan -- has almost singlehandedly revived interest in the freight tunnel idea.
The railroad tunnel would feed into the New York and Atlantic freight railroad (the former Long Island Railroad freight line), which winds its way through Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Midwood, Flatbush (as any former student at Brooklyn College knows) and East New York.
Some say the tunnel would connect to the lightly used 65th Street Railyard; others say the grade there would be too steep, and the connection would have to be further east.
Mark Westerfield, acting president of the railroad, said of the Cross-Harbor Tunnel, "We're in favor of anything that will increase business on our railroad line," noting that in the past two years alone, business on the line has increased from 7,000 freight cars a year to 20,000. He added that the state has a responsibility to help maintain tracks and infrastructure.
Because there are no facilities to process large-scale rail freight shipments on this side of the river, planners postulated such a facility in West Maspeth, Queens. However, the area's residents weren't thrilled with the idea of noise, constant vibrations and bustling activity in their neck of the woods, and convinced Mayor Bloomberg to pull his support from the project in 2005.
This past summer, a representative of Bloomberg's office told Nadler that the tunnel idea is impractical, but that he would be willing to take a second look at the plan.
Now, said Nadler, "The vote to transfer the Cross-Harbor Rail Freight Tunnel to the Port Authority is a major step forward for this important project. Governors Spitzer and Corzine, and the Port Authority's leadership are showing great vision by moving the tunnel forward."
The main organization advocating for the tunnel, known as MoveNYNJ, is headquartered at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. A large number of Brooklyn politicians, from congresspersons to assemblypersons to state senators to City Councilpersons, are listed as supporters.
According to MoveNYNJ, such a tunnel would "remove over one million tractor-trailers a year" from New York City streets. Yesterday, Elena Conte, a representative of MoveNYNJ, said, "It's a really exciting new development, a major step forward."
The $100 million for the study was allocated as part of the federal Transportation Act of 2005.
HOME | TUNNEL BENEFITS | LINKS | NEWS | TAKE ACTION
| 
