A desperately needed fix for the rickety rail tubes relied upon by hundreds of thousands of commuters through Manhattan every day was once the most important infrastructure priority in the nation.



No longer. Now, instead of racing against time to repair the crucial tunnel under the Hudson before it gives way - widely dubbed "transportation Armageddon" - our president is stressing the absolute urgency of a giant wall with Mexico.



He is eliciting prototypes for his "badly needed," "big and beautiful" wall, and proposing a trip to examine them in person - while one of his top bureaucrats just called the deal to help fund our so-called Gateway tunnel project "nonexistent."

Feds deal major blow to Gateway tunnel project



The Trump administration dropped that bombshell on a Friday right before a holiday weekend, in a letter to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.



We knew already that Trump's proposed budget eliminated a federal grant program that was supposed to cover a big chunk of the price of the tunnel fixes, and slashed funding for Amtrak, a major proponent of the project. This only adds to the unpredictable mayhem.



By disowning the deal made under the previous administration to partially fund the Gateway project - a shared expense between New York, New Jersey and the federal government - Trump is holding our entire regional economy hostage.



This may be a ploy to pressure Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer of New York and other Democrats to cede to his wall, or other, yet-unspecified infrastructure priorities; but as we saw with Trump's cruel action on the Dreamers, he's willing to pull the trigger.



And this time, hundreds of thousands of commuters and the economic health of the entire rail corridor from Boston to Washington, D.C. is his political bargaining chip.



So much for the September meeting that left some local officials with the impression that the president actually cared. This new tunnel was supposed to break ground in 2019, and if we lose yet another year, we risk that the corrosive salts left behind by Hurricane Sandy further eat away at the walls of our 100-year-old tunnel and signal system.

This is not the project for political gamesmanship.



Chris Christie still insists that Trump sees the urgency; that the Gateway will receive the necessary federal funds. But since when has he been a window into Trump's head?

Remember when our governor said he was "confident" that Trump would find a way to protect Obamacare's Medicaid expansion? Instead, the president pushed for the most drastic cuts.



Now, the Trump administration has taken to calling the Gateway tunnel a "local" project, to further the idea that New York and New Jersey should foot the entire bill themselves. Let's see how "local" the impact is when our disintegrating tunnel fails.



The entire Northeast Corridor rail system, which stretches through about eight states, depends on it. It's the linchpin of our regional economy, which supplies as much as one-fifth of the nation's gross domestic product. Should it give way, federal coffers would lose billions.



New Yorkers and New Jerseyans are already among the highest taxed people in the nation - soon to be even higher taxed, thanks to Trump's new tax plan. We send tens of billions more to the federal government than we receive in services. So why should we pay for a "local" project along the border with Mexico - a symbolic tribute to Trump's political base?



We'll foot the entire bill for our tunnel when Mexico pays for your wall, Mr. President.

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