July 2003

Representatives of MoveNY, the coalition for the Cross Harbor Rail Freight Tunnel project, met June 16 with leaders of the U.S. House Transportation Committee to brief them on the rail tunnel as part of the Transportation Committee’s tour of New York City transportation projects.
 
MoveNY was invited by the committee to join them on the tour after the coalition was announced on June 3.  Representatives of MoveNY briefed the members of Congress on the benefits of the project to the region in terms of reduced traffic and congestion, improvements in air quality and the project’s impact on homeland security. 
 
MoveNY was initiated to promote the region’s interests in Washington as Congress considers reauthorization of the major federal transportation-spending bill, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (T21 or T3).   The members of Congress that met in New York are leading the House Transportation Committee’s efforts to draft the bill.
 
The Cross Harbor Rail Freight Tunnel would connect New Jersey rail lines to rail lines east of the Hudson River originating in Brooklyn and extending throughout the New York metropolitan area into Long Island, the southern tier of Connecticut, and the east of Hudson region of upstate New York.
 
New York City is the only major city in the United States where the vast majority of all freight comes in and out by truck.  Currently most rail freight destined for points east of the Hudson River is off-loaded onto trucks in New Jersey as the only rail crossing point is 133 miles north at Castleton. Less than three percent of incoming freight to points East of the Hudson River comes by rail; almost all the rest comes by truck.
 
MoveNY is an initiative of 19 prominent leaders from New York’s business, labor, environmental, community and urban planning sectors dedicated to improving the region’s freight transportation system through the construction of a cross-harbor rail freight tunnel underneath New York Harbor.
 
For more info about MoveNY, visit the website: http://www.moveny.org/