New Tunnel Might Be Better Than ARC Tunnel

The Gateway Tunnel is designed to carry a smaller number of trains than the ARC Tunnel would have, but it includes two important elements that the ARC Tunnel lacked:

• Direct access to the existing Penn Station


• Track running up to Grand Central Station

The ARC Tunnel was designed to leave passengers a couple of blocks north of Penn Station and passengers would have had to walk on surface streets to get to Penn Station.

The new tunnel's link to Grand Central Station is a great improvement over the ARC Tunnel plan. This would allow N.J. Transit trains to terminate at Grand Central, and Metro-North trains to terminate at Penn Station. Taking advantage of all the excess capacity at Grand Central Station would relieve some pressure on the overcrowded Penn Station.

Let's hope this project actually gets built.