PROPOSAL: TSRR(tm): Woodlawn (Bronx, NY) to Paterson NJ

 YELLOW LINE IS A 16 Mile proposed Mag Lev Train (As built in Shanghai China)

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TSRR Proposal

TSRR(tm): Tri-State Railroad Proposal

Different State-run rail road companies operate as separate entities. Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA)(tm), NJ Transit(tm), Metro North Railroad(tm), Long Island Rail Road(tm), and Amtrak(tm). These Companies all have rail that is not sufficiently interconnected inside the New York City transit system.

The costs of building can be estimated by examining costs from past projects and adjusting for today’s dollar. The George Washington Bridge was built in the 1930’s (great depression era) with a cost of $59,000,000. In today’s dollars this translates to $853,000,000. Congress wants to spend $700 billion as a blank check to bail out private banks. Aren’t there more thought out ways to spend hard-earned, American taxpayer money?

The TSRR™ (Tri-State Railroad) will have its first line starting in the Bronx at Woodlawn station. This station was designed to serve as a possible hub between the New Haven and Harlem lines. The interconnecting Tunnel will then run through Riverdale Train Station, Leonia New Jersey, Fort Lee New Jersey, North Hackensack, Broadway-Fairlawn, and Paterson. This new line will accomplish the following:

1)      It will create a feasible evacuation route of any part of the tri-state area into the national train network in the event of an attack on our homeland.

2)      It will interconnect 35,000,000 commuters and take millions of cars off the road.

3)      It will return profit on taxpayer investment quicker than the National Bail Out plan by providing jobs now, and continuing economic prosperity.

Neither John McCain, nor Barrack Obama has mentioned specific plans on domestic national defense. Old solutions to old problems do not work anymore. New York City is the bulls-eye on Osama Bin Laden’s dartboard. Neither the Afghani nor the Iraqi “surge” are going to help New Yorkers break the gridlock if power is shut off in the event of a terrorist attack. In the event of a disaster, New York City’s 1930’s built roadway and railroad system are simply insufficient.

The change this country needs is not government solving an economic crisis by creating bigger bureaucracies. Rather we should invest in real project proposals that will benifit real Americans: real bridges, not “bridges to nowhere.” The next American Bridge should be built effectively to take advantage of new, gas-free modes of mass transit to avail this country’s addiction of foreign oil. This proposal is asking the Federal Government to take a different approach to government bail out by investing in projects that directly give back to the American people. Franklin D. Roosevelt took America out of the great depression by building a nationwide mass transit system, including the NYC subway system.

35,000,000 people will be traveling over 268 mi/hr (431 km/hr) interconnecting commuters and building true energy independence. Commuters will have complete flexibility to travel from any point in Connecticut, New York City, Westchester County, Orange County, Long Island, and all of New Jersey. This one line will increase traffic on Amtrak by connecting the greater New York City area to PA, and the entire nationwide network. Major transfer hubs will connect all the Metro North, NJ transit, LIRR, Amtrak and New Haven line railway systems. Some of these tracks are severly underitilized, including the Amtrak line running through the west side of manhattan to Penn Station. These infrastructure upgrades have low costs and provide more Efficient connections. American economic security begins with the right kind of investments. The government has worse returns in the banking sector than private banks who base foreclosure rates on market price. The bailout proposal promises a return on taxpayer investments, but implementation will be in the hands of Treasury Department Bureaucrats. The government does have a good “track” record on building railroad “track”.

My specific proposal is a partially tunneled, partially overland magnetic levitation track connecting the tri-state corridor through Van Cortland golf course in the Bronx. The specific proposal below [track distances in brackets]:

1)      TSRR Woodlawn Station in the Bronx connects the New Haven Line, Hudson Line, NYC subway 4 train [0 mi.]

2)      TSRR Riverdale Station in the Bronx connects the Hudson Line, Amtrak bound for Penn Station line (a track which exists today but is only used for freight once a night) [2 mi.]

3)      TSRR bridge (similar geography and distance as George Washington Bridge) [1 mi.]

4)      TSRR Leonia station (Future NJ transit “northern corridor” line) [0 mi.]

5)      TSRR Hackensack Station NJ Transit Pascack Valley Line [6 mi.]

6)      TSRR Broadway-Fullerton Station NJ Transit Port Jervis Line [4 mi.]

7)      TSRR Paterson Station NJ Transit Newark Line [3 mi.]

This implementation also connects a parallel running Amtrak line that connects Connecticut, the Bronx, Queens, and Long Island. It will allow for a simultaneous extension of the New York City subway system through the Bronx, and will bring jobs and economic prosperity to one of the poorest counties in the country.

One of the greatest American expressions is that money talks and bullshit walks. Having a higher return on an investment is the only way this project proposal would make dollars and “sense.” We can estimate how much a project like this would cost by looking at how many similar projects like this have cost in the past. Estimated costs of this project are based on:

1)      The cost of magnetic levitation tracks and trains based on the recent Shanghai Airport Metro connection [19 mi.]

2)      The cost of the George Washington Bridge in today’s dollars as the Hudson Rail Connection [1 mi.]

3)      The cost of NYC subway tunnels in areas where imminent domain would be impractical [variable distance based on engineering estimates]

The 1^st cost is tracks and trains. The Shanghai Magnetic Levitation train and tracks cost $1.2 billion[1] for 19 mi. of track[2]. This translates to approximately $63 million per mile. The total distance of this track is 16 miles. The cost to the American Tax Payer for the track portion of this project should be about $1.08 Billion.

The 2^nd cost is another Hudson River Bridge. On 10/12/1931 the George Washington bridge was completed for $59 million dollars. In today’s money, that translates to $850 million. With improved technology and computers, the bridge should be cheaper to construct today.

The 3rd cost tunneling. We may have to tunnel as little as 2 miles or as much as 16 miles. The New York City Subway system, including 21 miles of tunnel, was allocated $35 million in 1900 which translates to $3.5 billion in today’s money(10/5/2008). Since this project is 16 miles, it would be 20% cheaper which would make the cost about $2.8 billion, but would remove the need for the TSRR Bridge.

The fourth and most important cost is the 11 people that died constructing the George Washington bridge[3] and the over 60 people that died building the NYC subway[4]. It is in memory of those fallen workers that our country should unite, to remember their memory, and that their lives meant so much for all the billions of people who travelled these NYC landmarks.

Therefore this project will cost between $1,858,000,000 and $3,500,000,000 depending on percentage of tunneling. The economy will benefit for generations after this project and can be a substantial part of the $700 Billion congressional proposal.

In 2001 I drove 10,000 miles around the United States. Through the entire ring of the Eisenhower interstate system. One of the smartest things our grandfather’s did when they build this system, is they created large middle spaces between the two lanes, and kept it as State Property. Phase 2 of this proposal can involve having the Federal Government continue the Mag Lev to incorporate Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, Chicago, and out to the West Coast. At $63 million a mile, 3,000 miles costs $189 billion. America can quell its addiction of foreign oil by satisfying its addiction for BIG projects that are the best in the world (Like the two shining twin towers in the 1970’s). The American dream is to be best in the world, and this rail system can be profitable, and can sufficiently connect enought people to cut Amtrak and Airline subsidization.