In our spotlight on Business Report tonight.

Call it another miracle on the Hudson.

The federal government on Tuesday signed off on more than $6.8 billion in funding for the Gateway Tunnel project to build new rail tunnels under the Hudson River.

It's the final piece of funding for the long delayed project and the largest ever federal commitment to a mass transit project, meaning the federal government is on the hook for roughly three quarters of the $16 billion price tag.

Planners for Gateway say they've passed the point of no return.

All systems are go to begin construction as soon as this year, wrapping up by 2035.

It's a bit of good news following an otherwise maddening few weeks for transit riders whose commutes have been casualties of massive delays and cancellations, underscoring problems with the rail systems that have lingered for years and fingerpointing from transportation agencies.

So two of our reporters dug into what's to blame for the problems.

It's a good question.

And they join me now.

Budget and finance writer John Reitmeyer and Washington correspondent Ben Hulac.. Good to have you both in studio.

A really important thing to look at.

So, Ben, yes, there seems to always be confusion among the public about whose fault it is when these overhead wire issues happen.

Signal delays happen.

New Jersey Transit is actually just a tenant.

Yeah.

Right.

It can be really baffling.

You're sitting and you're on your train or maybe you're way on the platform and you're looking at an NJ Transit sign on the side of a train going by and it feels like you're using NJ Transit, but really it is Amtrak that owns the rail and operates the rail.

And to use an analogy that a source we talked to for the story told me, NJ Transit Amtrak are sort of like a married couple that get divorced but still live in the same house.

So they're using the phrase, they're using the situation.

Right.

And there's a lot of finger pointing and there's blame to go around.

A lot of these issues, of course, have been long, long going, decades in the making.

But it's also aging infrastructure that's a problem.

And, John, there was a big infusion of federal cash allegedly to help some of these problems.

Where did the money get spent?

Yeah, we have a lot of things happening at the same time here because NJ Transit has an operating budget and NJ Transit also has a capital budget and different levels of funding have come in and there is a lot of federal funding coming through the system as a result of a law passed a few years ago at the federal level for infrastructure, including rail infrastructure and of course NJ Transit has received a lot of federal dollars in recent years as pandemic aid in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic.

And it really created a big headache for transit agencies across the country, because what you saw is the ridership dropped off during the pandemic.

And as people continued to spend a lot of time working maybe in a hybrid schedule where they're going to the office some and working from home some.

And so NJ Transit has inflation that it's dealing with like a lot of us that's putting pressure on its operating budget and at the same time, it doesn't have ridership yet.

Back to what it was where test.

20.

Two for the pandemic.

So those are challenges on the operating side, just sort of keeping the system going.

And then the type of challenges that Ben and I did some reporting on are also looking at where are these investments in that infrastructure that he referred to, which, again, New Jersey Transit is really a tenant and it's the landlord is the federal government.

And in some ways, even if you aren't using that northeast corridor that's owned by Amtrak, which is between Trenton and New York City, the section that comes through New Jersey, some of the lines coming from other parts of the state in New Jersey do end up interacting with with that infrastructure.

And so you can be on a North Jersey coast line or Raritan Valley Line, and you're going to get delays even if you're not necessarily at the time on the northeast corridor.

And so that's the complicated nature of all of this.

So then what's happening to get that revenue where it needs to be and to hold an agency accountable?

I mean, we have a fare increase that's set to go into effect in just a few weeks.

And a lot of folks might think, hey, all right, we're raising prices, so this should fix the budget problem.

And either of you can jump in on this.

Does it?

I mean, I would defer heavily to Jon on on New Jersey specific budget issues, but this is we're sort of in a new world.

I mean, where I live in Washington, the subway system there is facing the same challenges.

How do you plan for this new world in which people are working for from home more?

We're still digging financially out of the pandemic.

That really cut a deep scar in the country on the New Jersey side.

I would pass it over to John.

Yeah.

And NJ Transit faces those challenges.

You know, the level of funding that comes out of the state budget and there's a new state budget that's about to get done in Trenton in the next few weeks is always an issue for NJ Transit's operations.

And the governor has a proposal right now to try to get more money for NJ transit operations.

But you know, a lot of this investment in the infrastructure itself, even when money's been allocated, it can take a lot of time to actually win.

Is that new tunnel actually going to open and when will people start to see the benefits of that new tunnel?

It's years away from right now, even though we celebrate these milestones of grant agreements and things like that.

Yeah.

And what will that do to alleviate some of these pressures?

We are talking, of course, about a decade in the making.

Yeah, I think on the functioning side, anytime you're updating the infrastructure itself, that will probably translate into better service.

And so that would help.

And then when you're increasing capacity, which is something that's the goal of the new tunnels, even the new what's being built, the portal bridge over the Hackensack River is supposed to increase capacity and that allows you to move more people at the same time versus where we're at now.

Ben, what did our congressional delegation have to say about this?

You talk to a bunch of them.

I did.

And I really talk to folks in South Jersey.

Robert Mendez is on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the House.

He said he agrees that New Jersey Transit needs to step up and provide more funding.

I'm paraphrasing this was maybe a month ago when I spoke with him.

I talked with Andy Kim, Jeff, Andrew, Donald Norcross.

So exclusively southern southern state folks, except for Menendez.

They in general, they said they actually all ride NJ Transit pretty regularly.

And I would just underscore this point federally, this could be the last big cash injection from Congress for the foreseeable future.

The law John referenced, which every member in New Jersey voted for, was passed in 2021.

This big infrastructure law, it provided $66 billion nationwide for rail.

Depend on how Congress shakes out in the next Congress or Congress after that, or who wins the White House.

This could be it for potentially decades.

Big question.

Mark.

Big question.

Ben Hulac, John Reitmeyer great reporting.

Thank you to you both for coming in.

My pleasure.

Thank you.

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