Much welcome news for rail riders. I also want to thank amtrak would doing all it can all it could to help ease the pain for commuters in a moment. You'll hear from state transportation, Commissioner, diane will get us scotty who also served as New Jersey transit chair Greg schultz from amtrak and Steve stockman from the gateway development Corporation and I also want to acknowledge the sack mchugh who is here on behalf of senator booker the Puerto Is the lynch pin of the entire northeast quarter over 200000 amtrak and New Jersey transit riders cross that each and every day but that rickety old span is more than a hundred years old and it's falling apart every time it swings open. It runs the risk of failing and everytime that wooden structure jams fails to lock in place or catches, fire. It wreaks havoc on our entire transportation network and leaves commuters in a world of pain Of thousands stranded on trains and station platforms, countless more stuck in gridlock is more cars, take to our roads lost hours for workers, less productivity for business late fees for parents who can't pick up pick up their kids from day care on time. Miss job interviews, doctors, appointments, I could go on but the point is this every time the portal bridge fails the disruption spread across our transportation system, faster than the And it's that much worse when the portal bridge fails during peak hours when the number of people traveling the northeast corridor is at its highest last year alone. We had five massive service disruptions along the northeast corridor due to a portal bridge failure, including two on the same day on October thirtieth of last year the portal bridge open and failed to close not once but twice once towards the End of the morning community and then again, just as most folks were getting ready to leave work and headed home the results. A hundred and 48 New Jersey transit trains delayed or cancelled impacting a hundred and 50000 passengers and 16 amtrak trains delayed affecting another 56 50 600, a year ago today, a bridge failure at 4:30 AM grind at the rails to a halt for hours well into the morning rush a hundred and 12 amtrak and New Jersey transit trains cancel another 34 Delayed 66000 passengers directly affected the timing of these failures matters a great deal in terms of the impact on the entire system and the people depending on it consider the other two. Last year which occurred during off peak times, the failure on January 11 took place during the workweek, but it happened mid morning knock during rush hour. It still hurt but not nearly as bad as it could have been 30 cancelled New Jersey transit and amtrak turns 69 delayed by 30000 passengers affected and February third was a Saturday afternoon. Only three amtrak in eight New Jersey transit trains experienced delays. Clearly, what time the portal bridge swings matters a great deal that's. Why I, along with senator booker and governor murphy. We sent a letter to the Coast guard which has jurisdiction over maritime traffic and authorize openings of swing bridges like the portal bridge to limit the impact The bridge is openings and more prevalent failures. We asked the Coast guard to restrict larger vessels from trans bursting the hackensack River in carney during the peak morning and afternoon. Commutes with instruction from the Coast guard. We asked amtrak to formalize that request, which they did without hesitation and I'm pleased to say the Coast guard has answered our call the order now in effect, along the hackensack River effectively banned Large vessels that would require the portal bridge to open from passing through during the hours of five to 10 AM and 3 PM, to 8 PM with one limited exception due to title restrictions. We anticipate that will be few and far between and that would still require a minimum of two hours notice the order stands for the next six months and can be extended, something that we intend to advocate for Taking the significant step will help alleviate pressure on the portal bridge, restore some reliability to the system and most importantly give riders some peace of mind and it's a compromise that allows both our region's critical maritime and rail sectors to continue to thrive. But in closing, let me make it clear this is a temporary fix to a much larger problem the best thing we can do for commuters and for our entire region is to replace the portal bridge and complete the gateway project, senator booker and I To secure a 16 million federal tiger Grant to initiate the preliminary work on portal that work was completed on time and on budget the required environmental reviews are done and the by state delegations that word hard to stash money in the federal budget to keep gateway moving portal is ready to go all we need is President trump to step up and put pettiness aside. He is literally the only thing standing in the way of a gateway Towards a new future we're sitting on a transportation ticking time bomb the portal bridge and hudson rail tunnels which were damaged by sandy, must be replaced. The longer we wait. The greater the risk of a transportation armageddon with the President fully, on board. We can get gateway done faster and cheaper in the meantime, as the ranking Democrat on the senate's transit subcommittee I'll keep doing everything I can to ensure we have a safe and reliable rail system, including reaching agreements like this. Everyone knows it's going to Years to build the gateway and I hear it from frustrated commuters who asked what are you going to do to help me now. Will limiting when the portal bridge can open is a good place to start this agreement will help us reduce the risk of future failures and, ultimately prevent the kind of massive disruptions that we have. It on New Jersey's families lives and with that, let me call up the deal t. Commissioner, Commission, of a terrace cody who's been a partner in this through governor barbour Commission. Thank you, senator Thank you all for being here on behalf of the board and staff at New Jersey transit. We, like to thank governor murphy senator mendez and senator booker for their continued support of the transit system. Also, we would like to thank the us Coast guard for their continued partnership as we pursue the replacement of this over 100 year old structure, we are all too familiar with the issues at the existing bridge the new portal northbridge is vital to our ability to provide the quality of services, our riders deserve so important The governor has led the effort to ensure that New Jersey is ready to fund its share of the replacement cost, but while we are waiting for the federal match all the work that can be done is being done and as senator mendez said much of it is completed and it was completed on time and in budget We are fully prepared to move forward with the construction of the new bridge once we receive the federal dollars in the meantime, the extended restrict restricted opening hours and the reduction of opportunities for last minute openings is a significant result for computer commuters. Again, our gratitude to the governor senator mendez and senator booker for the continued support of New Jersey's transportation system. Thank you Thank you, Commission. Let me call Craig schultz of amtrak Good morning everyone and thank you, senator mendez um, just on behalf of amtrak I just like to say thank you, senator mendez, senator booker, governor murphy and commissioners. Catty um executive director, Kevin corbett really uh a whole team of people who are working on the portal North bridge project and especially the Coast guard um. You know for helping uh to uh advance this proposal and bringing all the users in hackensack River together. You know so amtrak as the owner and Stewart of portal bridge uh. We we are With balancing the needs of the waterway users, the maritime traffic that uses the River and of course, the very busy and uh and and very important northeast quarter um. We recognize that this change actually is a hardship to a lot of the boat owners and users and we appreciate their flexibility and discussing this in and arriving at this temporary fix and this temporary solution with us um, but really at the end of the day, having a movable bridge here in this spot really just doesn't make any sense it's like putting a drawbridge basically in the Middle of the new of the New Jersey turnpike when she would never do um when it opens everything stops. You know and so the the the real fix here that the real longterm se Of course, is a higher clearance uh bridge, uh the portal, northridge uh, which will be much higher off the River. It won't have to open and close it won't interrupt a Marine traffic. It won't interrupt uh real traffic um and that's really the North star that that we're all working towards so we've had great success uh with the early construction work is now underway and, as uh as as has been mentioned here came in on time and on budget uh and we look forward to taking the next step in getting major construction under way so that we can once and for all Uh 20 first century bridge that uh that the region needs uh so thank you very much And then finally, Steve segment of the gateway development Corporation. Thank you. Uh. I wanna on behalf of our trustees, New Jersey, trustee gerri zero New York trustee Steve cohen and uh an amtrak trustee. Tony cosa reiterate uh everyone's thanks today this undermine and ez senator booker and governor murphy uh for getting this uh important action done all of us uh 200000 daily commuters who use use the bridge know the sinking feeling of the New Jersey transit alerts that's a you know 60 minute 90 minute uh delays from the portal bridge opening so uh this is an important uh short term Sex and short term solution that will help all of us and an improved quality of life for 200000 riders. But as everyone here has said today, what we need in the longterm is 20 first century rail transportation. Uh, a 53 foot high, fixed non movable bridge that does not have to open and close ever and a new tunnel into and out of New York, that supports the region's economy and the nation's economy and and and makes life better for for all For everybody who, who uses thank you Thank you happy to answer some questions on top it Having ended up problem today or That's, like eating easy projects, the expectation is that the tunnel up Uh okay, what is going to be Uh it's under water right Wow on the money well, I'm not aware of the new technology, but uh anything that can make the tunnel safe and effective. That would be great, but uh let's also realize that in addition to making the tunnel safe we're talking a lot about a lot of different package at the end of the day because it was both a creation of new tunnels and rehabbing existing tunnels uh and so we're talking about greater movement for a system that essentially is goal was built for certain type of uh uh ridership and certain tracking And now, a century later is in a good good news. Parties that it's booming in terms of people who want to use Mass transit or ride so I'm not sure that that alone solves our problem. But certainly happy to embrace anything that makes it move. If we get bad ratings, it will be only because politics is being played the administration at the end of the day uh set uh that supposedly the States did not have enough skin in the game. They did, but nonetheless to the credit of both governor murphy and governor cuomo and the port authority of New York and New Jersey and other entities. They put even more More money into the project, this is the very same projects that got high ratings. Uh in the previous administration, the only reason these projects might get for ratings is because the politics, the President trump, is playing, but he's playing politics on a transportation ticking time bomb uh and he will hold the responsibility if at the end of the day, we can move this quickly we're gonna get gateway done. Oh the federal delegation has kept the projects moving by virtue of funding uh through various That the administration can't touch will continue to do that than you uh budget. That the President sets which decimate ps new starts and other elements of critical Mass transit is dead on arrival. We will rewrite that budget. Uh and put the moneys that are necessary so this is gonna happen the question is. Can it happen sooner cheaper, better for the region, a region that generates 20 percent of gdp for the entire nation uh. If the present To rich, either, the portal bridge Sunday just never really closing again or if the President wants to risk the possibility of one of those tunnels and the next, you know we just had uh a bomb cyclones in the Middle of the country. You get one bad weather system that comes through like sandy. If you wants to risk that that will be on his desk but not us we're gonna fight to the mill Here's And you know On Well, I'm happy to let me be as someone Simon wants to address that specifically, but look uh we're not we're, not in the midst of trying to create a project simply because we wanna make uh a new project that's gonna cause the billions of dollars we're in this because we believe this is an emergent need or transportation riders in the most densely populated region in the nation, it is a project of National significant. It is the economic vertebrae of the entire region from Boston to Washington. It's the reality Need for intercity travel more so than ever before, as we learned on that fateful day in September, eleventh, when everything got shut down and people need to travel and they couldn't having multiple modes of transportation involves all of these things. Economic, environmental so I mean it's it's one of my office when we look at legislation is called the no brainer as far as I'm concerned. Now the time frame. I don't know if there's anyone who has specific uh you can absolutely um. I mean the truth is really at least you know no one has a crystal ball and and no one knows how long exactly the tunnel has right um and no one really wants to find out quite frankly right, so that's. Why we have Been pushing as hard as we have as we have with the senators, help and all of our delegation, our bipartisan um, our friends and in Congress uh to get this project done as quickly as possible. Right um that the needs of the tunnel of the existing tunnel a hundred eight years old um are pretty significant. You know there are a lot of systems in their the eventual systems that's the concrete liner itself. I mean it sound it's structurally sound um, but they suffered significant damage during sandy and they need to be rebuilt. You know and um And and uh you know, there's uh there's, a lot of work that needs to be done in there and so um we need to get started as quickly as possible of course, uh with just two tracks doing that really you know, without another route is just not feasible so um. We need to get uh you know. We we need to get everybody together and and get the hudson tunnel project uh. You know under way in earnest and and build a new tunnel for, for the region. Thank you. We just finalized by you can have 20 first century economy on 19 century infrastructure that's not gonna work Well, the governor murphy to his credit, uh, has stepped up uh with a large commitment. Uh that we feel that we are at the precipice of ready to go but as any good executive he has to watch out for the taxpayers of the people of New Jersey and he's not about to spend that money unless he has a federal commitment that they will be the state of New Jersey will be credited for it and I don't, I don't blame him for that which is why, as we are dealing with the administration of the trump Administration, uh working with senator schumer and senator booker and senator jill, a brand and we have devised legislation that we intend to put in the budget. Uh that ultimately will pass in this Congress. That will give credit to any um uh entity that upfront their own money and then gets replaced by federal money once the project is approved, we know this project is gonna be approved just a question of when and so uh, if we do that, then governor murphy and governor cuomo in New York and Puerto New York and New Jersey could understand that if they up front money to start the project that they're not going to at the end of the day lose out because under existing rules, if you spend the money before you have an approval, then that doesn't get credited and so uh so this is another La effort that we are doing simply because we are facing the uh the blockage and the obstacles from the trump administration. yes Our I think you saw some of that video the reaction seeing something so into quick Well, my reaction is that it's primitive it's it's pretty amazing. That when the bridge doesn't walked, that in fact, the result is is that sometimes workers have to go out with sledge. Hammers to try to get the rails align so that traffic can move in the greatest country on the face of the Earth that we're dealing with 19 century infrastructure for a 20 first century economy it's amazing. We are living off the greatest generation's investments and we haven't kept up with and so imagine the writers under Transit and amtrak who have to get stuck on either sides of the bridge or back in the terminals simply because a bridge can't close it's mindboggling it's my bubbly and to think that the way that their ultimate uh woes get taking care of somebody with a sledge hammer on the on the bridge pretty amazing in the year 20 19. Thank you all very much appreciate it Thank you