NYC Train Tunnel Held Captive by Trump and Lacks a Plan B

How to get 200,000 people in and around Manhattan without rail
‘The war against those cracks’ can continue for only so long

A New Jersey Transit train exits the North River Tunnel in North Bergen, New Jersey on March 13.Photographer: Ron Antonelli/Bloomberg

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By Elise Young and Mark Niquette

March 27, 2019 at 1:00 PM UTC

Updated on

March 27, 2019 at 6:25 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

By now, New York City’s western suburbs were supposed to be reveling in soaring home prices, cleaner air and swift access to thousands of jobs, all made possible by an additional train tunnel linking New Jersey to Manhattan.

Construction was killed, though, by former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican with national aspirations. President Donald Trump has stymied a second proposal. Meanwhile, concrete is crumbling inside the sole existing tube, opened in 1910, and four years of even a partial failure would cost the national economy $16 billion, according to regional planners.