TRENTON – Senator Bob Gordon and Assemblyman John McKeon will lead a joint hearing tomorrow by the Senate Legislative Oversight Committee and Assembly Judiciary Committee to assess the progress of New York Penn Station repairs and to review NJ Transit operations, including the recent service cancellations due to a shortage of engineers willing to accept schedule changes.
NJ Transit, Amtrak, PATH and New York Waterways officials will testify at the joint hearing on Wednesday, July 19 at 10 a.m. in Committee Room 4 in the State House Annex in Trenton.
Michael DeCataldo, Vice President of Operations-East for Amtrak; Steve Santoro, NJ Transit Executive Director; Michael Marino, Executive Director of PATH, and Armand Pohan, CEO of New York Waterway ferry service, will be the lead witnesses.
Senator Gordon and Assemblyman McKeon said the New York Penn Station work underscores the need for the federal government to immediately authorize funding for the Gateway Rail Tunnel and Portal Bridge projects.
Construction work on the decrepit Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River will be ready to start next month, and the Gateway Rail Tunnel project completed its draft Environmental Impact Statement review.
New Jersey and New York State funding is in place for the projects, but the White House and Congress have yet to commit the federal share of funding needed for the projects, the New Jersey legislators noted.