New Jersey taxpayers have spent almost $1.2 billion on the Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) tunnel to date, which was cancelled by Gov. Chris Christie (R) in late 2010, according to a report in The Record.Â
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
In the report, The Record says that millions of dollars spent “were lost forever” on costs such as lawyers and environmental studies.
The article also notes that taxpayer monies did pay for amenities such as a new fleet of NJ Transit trains and property rights, “but that potential hangs on the fate of Amtrak’s unfunded plan to build its own tunnel under the Hudson.”
A breakdown of the costs states that a whopping $368 million was spent on “double-decker railcars and dual-power locomotives,” with a “feasibility study of [the] subway extension” running a relatively modest bill of $230,000.
The ARC tunnel, named as such since it would have been built underneath the Hudson River, was set to run from an underpass on Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen to 34th Street in Manhattan.
The infrastructure was touted as being capable of doubling the commuter rail capacity between northern New Jersey and New York City.