Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday he hopes to meet Wednesday with President Trump and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to push for federal funding of the Hudson River rail tunnel project.
“It’s not even a New York project. This is a federally owned tunnel,” Cuomo said about the so-called Gateway Program during an interview on WNYC.
Cash for the massive infrastructure project was included in the federal budget during President Barack Obama’s tenure — but was pulled under Trump.
“This is a critical Northeast need,” said Cuomo, adding that the existing tunnel is on its last legs and could fail.
“It’s going to hurt New York City [but] it’s the entire Northeast rail corridor” that could be crippled if that happened, he added.
“We need the president’s administration to move forward. We’ve had a number of meetings with the president on this and discussions, I’ve talked to the president about it personally,” he said.
“A few weeks ago, I went into the tunnels and I took a video of the tunnels and I sent it to the president because, hoping that the pictures are so glaring, Brian, that it would supersede the political rhetoric.”
His comments came a day after he wrote to the state’s Democratic congressional delegation pushing for them to fight for the Gateway Program and for rolling back limits on state and local tax deductions that were part of the president’s tax plan.
Obama’s administration agreed to provide half the $13 billion needed for the project, but it’s been in financial limbo for two years after Trump balked at approving the funding.
The current tunnel, which carries 820,000 daily commuters and East Coast Amtrak passengers between Washington and Boston, is endangered by age and corrosion from 2012’s Superstorm Sandy, and its replacement and repair “should not be a partisan issue,” Cuomo wrote.