The Gateway Development Commission has been authorized by its board to enter into a final agreement in September with the Federal Railroad Administration for a $3.8 billion Federal-State Partnership grant to fund the Hudson Tunnel Project. The money is the final funding piece for the $16 billion project to build a new rail tunnel that will carry Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains under the Hudson River into Manhattan.
GDC applied for an FSP grant in March 2023, and all $3.8 billion requested was committed in November 2023.
Last November, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that the grant would revise the HTP’s funding structure from a 50-50 to a 70-30 split between the federal government and the states, representing the largest-ever federal commitment to a rail mass transit project.
“The FSP grant agreement will cap off the massive effort to get the Hudson Tunnel Project all of the funding it needs to be completed. Taken together with the major construction we’re seeing ramp up, GDC is earning its stripes as an agency with the capacity and drive to build the most urgent infrastructure project in the nation,” Alicia Glen, New York GDC commissioner; Balpreet Grewal Virk, New Jersey GDC commissioner; and Tony Coscia, Amtrak GDC commissioner, said in a joint statement.
GDC CEO Kris Kolluri added: “On my first day as CEO, I was tasked with identifying and securing all of the sources of federal funding available to guarantee the HTP’s future. With tremendous support from the (President Joe) Biden administration, Sens. Schumer and (Cory) Booker, the New Jersey and New York congressional delegations and Govs. (Phil) Murphy and (Kathy) Hochul, that task will be complete with final execution of the FSP grant.”
The Gateway Program is the most urgent infrastructure program in the country — a comprehensive set of rail investments that will improve commuter and intercity services, add needed resiliency and create new capacity for the busiest section of the Northeast Corridor.
