Biden Makes Qualye Look Like A Mensa Member

At least Vice President Joe Biden has his humor to keep things chugging along. He's hardly the sharpest tool in the shed, and his statements in relation to the groundbreaking on the new $8.7 billion ARC Tunnel between New York City and New Jersey included quite the whopper.

He thought that the tunnel was meant for auto traffic. Sorry Joe, but this is a rail tunnel, and as the Sierra Club noted, it's going to be a pain to have those cars go up all those escalators. (HT: Jammie)

As the Bergen Record points out:

Biden had just finished telling reporters on a conference call Monday that federal stimulus money might have gone out slower in the past few months than some people liked because, “We don’t end up with any major glitches.”

Then The Record had a chance to ask about an environmental group’s complaint that Amtrak would not be able to use the new Hudson River tunnel – which is benefiting from a provision of the stimulus bill increasing the Federal Transit Administration’s debt limit -- because it doesn’t go to Penn Station.

Biden said Amtrak was getting its share of stimulus money and more projects would be announced in a few days. Then he offered this:

“Look, this is designed, this totally new tunnel, is designed to provide for automobile traffic,” Biden said. “It’s something, as you know, up your way, that’s been in the works and people have been clamoring for for a long time.”

For the record, the tunnel is for trains, and its completion would allow for more NJ Transit trains during peak hours and “one-seat” rides into Midtown Manhattan on lines serving Bergen and Passaic counties. Currently riders on those lines must switch trains.

In fact, this is a double whopper for Biden, who has often pointed out that he's a regular rider on Amtrak. The problem with the new tunnel is that it isn't going to help Amtrak one iota, despite the billions in federal assistance, because the new tunnel will not terminate at Penn Station on the Northeast Corridor, but at a new and separate platform area built in the vicinity of Herald Square (dubbing some to call it the tunnel to Macy's).

You would think that Biden, or his handlers, would know what the heck they were talking about.

UPDATE:
So what will the new station look like? Gothamist has the mockups, and they too note that the new tunnel will not connect with the Northeast Corridor at Penn Station, limiting its usefulness.

I'm also curious as to how the 50-60,000 jobs will be created as a result of this project. I can understand the 5-6,000 construction jobs, but once the new station is completed, it would take only a few hundred people to staff the new facility. Maintenance of the rail right of ways would be handled by existing staff and a limited number of new people.

It's an inflated figure, designed to ensure that the project goes forward, regardless of the actual cost or actual benefit (which is still considerable given that there are only two train tunnels that serve the Northeast Corridor and accidents and other issues can cause massive delays throughout the system because of this bottleneck.