Gov. Christie: Not Investing In The Only Line That Is Profitable Is Bad Business

Senator Cory Booker: In my first days as a United States Senator, I reached out to the Governor and he joined to take a project that was going nowhere and turned it into a project, forgive the pun, that was on a fast track to getting completed. I want to thank him for his partnership, the commitment he's shown to working with Governor Cuomo, to working with his federal delegation to getting this done. I want to bring to the microphone now Governor Chris Christie.

Governor Christie: This is a pretty clear mandate. I've said I'd join with the Senators in being willing to host Secretary Chao to come here and see this for herself. She needs to see the project that we all agreed upon during the Obama Administration which is a significant improvement over projects that have been proposed in the past. Significant improvements in a number of ways: one, because this project will now take commuters from here to Penn Station in New York and allow them to have an easy ability to travel to other parts of New York City on their commute whether it's on the West Side or across town on the East Side. This also is a project that is a 50/50 partnership, which was not the situation in the past and we've had Governor Cuomo's agreement to be partners with New Jersey on this. And so, this project has made great progress as Senator Booker said over the last two years and I join him in welcoming Secretary Chao to New Jersey, showing her the infrastructure issues on the tunnel and urging her to continue with the project as it was agreed to by the last administration. It's the right thing to do for the country. It goes even further than just the tunnel project though, as Senator Booker knows, because many of the problems that we've experienced in the last number of weeks, have been problems that have been caused by an absolute failure of the federal government to stand up to their obligations to keep the current infrastructure in workable condition and that's unacceptable given that New Jersey taxpayers and fare payers just wrote a check for over $60 million to Amtrak for keeping the track and infrastructure in a state of good repair, and we continue to pay monthly to be able to try to keep this infrastructure maintained by Amtrak, Amtrak's responsibility, to step forward and do what needs to be done. And so, the Secretary needs to see all of that, because Amtrak is part of her responsibility as well. This is the only profitable line that Amtrak has in the entire country, the northeast corridor. And to not invest in the only line that is profitable is bad business, even for government. And so I look forward to hosting the Secretary I am confident she will come. I look forward to hosting her with Senator Booker and any of the other members of the congressional delegation who want to come and add their voices to what needs to be done here. So, I look forward to our continued work together. I want to once again thank Governor Cuomo as well. His willingness to stand up, which by the way, is different than previous administrations in New York State and New York City. To step up and be a part of contributing their fair share to what will be a great thing for, not only the state of New Jersey, but the state of New York, is something that's helped to make this project possible.

Source