25Hz wrote:Thomas, the likelihood of gateway not being done is zero. It has been stated by amtrak that the salt water damage from sandy means eventually one of the tunnels or both will need to be shut down for extensive rehabilitation within 20 years. This was going to happen anyways when gateway became operational, but now it may happen before new tunnels are even begun. That is the real worry you should have. If one tunnel gets taken out of service, the stresses on the remaining tunnel may hasten its being shut as well. I blame voters and the people they put in office for this situation, but this is not the place for hashing out such topics.
Plain and simple: Gateway completion is now required to ensure continued trans-hudson NEC service.
You bring up some solid points. However, I do think--really think--that Amtrak may HAVE to engage in prolonged tunnel outages to repair the Hurricane Sandy Damage.
Back in the early 2000's, the MTA used 9/11 as a legit excuse to help get funding on board for East Side Access--which worked! (Bloomberg ended up putting an ESA bond issue on a ballot).
But my question is, suppose that the new trans-hudson tunnels get built, with or without Block 780, will Amtrak simply just shut down both old Tunnels seven days a week, or will these tunnels only be closed on weekends, similar to the PATH WTC tubes?