"With this monetary commitment and the commitment made by [NewJersey] Gov. Jon Corzine, it shows Washington that local matchingfunds exist for the project," a Port Authority spokesman tellsGlobeSt.com. "Right now there is a bottleneck from Newark to NewYork because the trains converge into one 100-year-old tunnel."

The Port Authority's 10-year strategic plan, adopted in December2005, recognized the Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel (THE Tunnel) as aproject crucial to bi-state regional transportation, and thisaction follows that plan. The tunnel will more than double theNY-NJ train capacity from 23 to 48 trains per hour, according tothe PA.

The THE Tunnel construction may begin as soon as 2009 and becompleted by 2016. The price tag is $7.2 billion, according to PortAuthority officials. The project took a step forward last week withthe announcement by Corzine that the Federal Transit Administrationwill advance the THE Tunnel to the preliminary engineering phase ofthe federal "new starts" process--a significant step in acquiringfederal funding. Preliminary engineering will begin next week andtake up to 18 months.