New York and New Jersey Need an $11B Tunnel. Will Biden Make It Happen?

The transportation secretary said building a new rail link under the Hudson River is critical to the economy far beyond the region.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg got a close-up look at the crumbling state of New York City’s most critical rail link on Monday and vowed that the Biden administration was committed to getting a new train tunnel built under the Hudson River. After touring the decaying 110-year-old Hudson tunnel in an Amtrak car crammed full of elected officials from New York and New Jersey, Mr. Buttigieg sounded convinced of the urgency of completing a second tunnel. The long-delayed project, with an estimated cost of $11.6 billion, is vitally important to the national economy, he said at a news conference in Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan. If one of the two tubes of the 110-year-old tunnel had to be closed for repairs, “you would be feeling the economic impact all the way back in Indiana, where I come from,” Mr. Buttigieg said. “That’s how important this is.”