Aged Hackensack River Bridge Jammed, Halting Trains between New Jersey and New York City; Gateway Project Would Fix This

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Aged Hackensack River Bridge Jammed, Halting Trains between New Jersey and New York City; Gateway Project Would Fix This

Jan. 11, 2018 (EIRNS)—The 118-year-old bridge spanning the Hackensack River, which carries the main Eastern Seaboard rail traffic for Amtrak and NJ Transit, into and out of Manhattan, jammed its swing mechanism for two hours this morning, halting all rail transit. The aged bridge swings open for river vessels, but periodically something gets stuck. Amtrak said that today’s outage came from a signal problem.

This latest bridge breakdown incident occurred mid-morning; train service was resumed by about 1:00 p.m.

Breakdowns are a recurring problem that the proposed Gateway Project would eliminate, by replacing the old bridge altogether, with a new, higher-clearance bridge. This would be safe, and accommodate high-speed trains. Also, new, safe tunnels would be bored under the Hudson River.

Today’s incident shows the wrongfulness of the latest move by the Federal government to pull out of support for the Gateway Project through grants and loan guarantees.