I think I’ve found the connection to corruption with Nadler and Weiner….they wanted Moar rail lines in NY! I wonder why???? read full article
http://www.junipercivic.com/juniperberryarticle.asp?nid=281#.XH1AO6ROmEd
WHY THE CROSS HARBOR TUNNEL IS UNNECESSARY
A continuous argument of Congressmen Nadler and Weiner and lobbyist namely Marnie MacGregor (Move NY/NJ) is that the New York region is uncommonly dependent on trucking. The fact it is not radically out of line with the national average – trucking transports 81% of the tons of freight in the New York metro area versus 78% nationwide.
Trucking is the main freight mode in NYC, as it is all over. Rail does play a minor role – less than 2% in New York versus 16% nationwide, but that's because water transport looms so large in NYC.
The big difference between the NYC area and the rest of the ountry is not rail versus trucking, but rail versus water. The New York Metro region, with islands, peninsulas and inlets, is wonderfully suited for water transport and very poorly suited for rail.
Water transportation has thrived like practically nowhere else in the United States. Waterways are natural obstacles to rail thus making rail connections very expensive to build. Bulk products like – gravel, sand, oil, chemicals, scrap, bulk lumber – which in more land bound cities are railed, in the New York region they tend to be barged.
With that said, today there are still adequate rail routes into NYC without building a $9 billion Cross Harbor tunnel between New Jersey and Brooklyn. That money would be better spent on improving existing railroad infrastructure to increase capacity and productivity. The 143-acre (truck/train depot) facility in Maspeth would displace hundreds of existing businesses and cause massive traffic jams and pollution in an already heavily congested area (where the LIE meets the BQE). Nadler says that this problem could be mitigated by adding entrance and exit ramps to the Long Island Expressway. Even if this were possible, can the the LIE absorb thousands of trucks additional trucks a day? And what about when the LIE is congested (which happens more often than not), what will prevent trucks from finding alternate routes through our neighborhood? Certainly not a woefully understaffed precinct like the 104th Pct. And what about our air quality which is the worst in the nation? What does Nadler recommend to mitigate that problem?
What Nadler fails to realize in his quest for the tunnel is that these types of intermodal facilities already exist in New Jersey and Pennsylvania away from densely populated urban areas. Nadler and cronies also overlook 50 years of investment in warehousing and logistics centers in central and northern New Jersey out of which trucks daily distribute goods throughout the NY/NJ/CT region. These centers are convenient to the region's major ports, interstate highways, and railways. Why should they build expensive new duplicative facilities on very pricey New York City land? They simply won't do it.
NYC IS ALREADY LINKED TO NATIONAL RAIL