But the mass transit links underpinning that relationship are inadequate.  Planners know this, but have been hitherto unable to bring the problem to the fore, in part because of the problem of forging a bi-state approach to solving it.  Compare the transit lines crossing the Hudson to those crossing the East and Harlem Rivers.  Sixteen sets of subway tracks run under or over the latter.  Only two cross the Hudson.  New Jersey commuter trains are linked by a single tunnel to Penn Station NY.  That is also currently true of the Long Island Railroad, but the lower level of the 63^rd Street tunnel is available for commuter rail access, and the LIRR East Side Access project is on its way to connecting it to Grand Central Terminal.  There is also more infrastructure flexibility in Metro-North’s access to Manhattan.  If there was room at Penn Station, Metro-North’s Hudson Line could serve it in short order via the bridge at Spuyten Duyvil and Amtrak’s West Side line.  Likewise, only Penn Station constraints prevent New Haven line trains from using Amtrak’s Hell Gate route to reach the West Side.  MTA projects and planning are moving forward to realize these potentials.

But even without these improvements, the commuter lines east and north of the city could still serve Manhattan in a crisis that affected Midtown because many of their smaller stations in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn permit easy transfers to the vast, flexible subway system.  If Penn Station were disabled, that would simply not be the case for commuters from New Jersey – rush hour PATH trains operated close enough to capacity before September 11 that a big influx of NJ Transit riders could not fit into that system.

Crisis and redundancy planning aside, demand for rail access from New Jersey to Manhattan is growing.  NJ Transit projects in the works for years are significantly increasing the capacity for one-seat or easy two-seat Manhattan trips, but they are running up against the Hudson tunnel/Penn Station bottleneck.  Senators Torricelli and Corzine say a second commuter rail tunnel from NJ to Manhattan will be their top priority in next year’s federal transportation reauthorization.  New York’s Congressional delegation should also back the project.  For all the talk about building LIRR and Metro-North links downtown, it is more important for the city’s overall economy to ensure that it gets easier for New Jersey workers to reach Manhattan.

U.S. Lawmakers All Over the Map on New Hudson Tunnel (June 17, 2002)

Downtown LIRR Advocates Take Aim at Subway Tunnel
(March 4, 2002)

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