{"id":572124,"date":"2026-02-07T04:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T04:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/572124\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T04:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T04:46:15","slug":"judge-orders-trump-administration-to-restore-federal-funds-for-rail-tunnel-between-ny-and-nj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/572124\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge orders Trump administration to restore federal funds for rail tunnel between NY and NJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal judge on Friday blocked President Trump from freezing $16 billion in funds<\/a> for the massive Gateway tunnel project in New York and New Jersey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Judge Jeannette Vargas of the Southern District of New York ordered the Trump administration to release funds earmarked for the Hudson River rail tunnel \u2013 which would connect New York and New Jersey \u2013 on the same day construction on the project came to a screeching halt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiffs have adequately demonstrated that they would imminently suffer such loss if [the Gateway Development Commission] is forced to shut down its operations,\u201d Vargas, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, wrote in her 11-page order.\u00a0<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas told the Trump administration to restore funding for a new railroad tunnel between New York and New Jersey on Friday.<\/p>\n

New York, New Jersey and the Gateway Development Commission (the entity responsible for building the tunnel) sued Trump over the funding freeze earlier this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A line of credit that had allowed construction to continue in the wake of Trump\u2019s decision to pause funding last October had run dry Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a critical victory for workers and commuters in New York and New Jersey,\u201d New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a\u00a0statement<\/a>. \u201cI am grateful the court acted quickly to block this senseless funding freeze, which threatened to derail a project our entire region depends on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hudson Tunnel Project is one of the most important infrastructure projects in the nation, and we will keep fighting to ensure construction can continue without unnecessary federal interference.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The order came after President Trump and his administration planned to halt $16 billion that the project needed to commence. Getty Images<\/p>\n

New Jersey Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill\u00a0noted<\/a>\u00a0the court granted \u201ctemporary relief\u201d and vowed to continue the legal battle with Trump as the litigation plays out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s decision to freeze this funding is illegal, and we\u2019ll continue to pursue full relief so the nation\u2019s most urgent transportation project keeps moving forward,\u201d Sherrill wrote on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Trump froze a combined $18 billion in funding for the Gateway tunnel and New York\u2019s Second Avenue subway project last October \u2013 on the first day of the record-breaking, 43-day-long government shutdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The funds were approved by the federal government in 2021 and construction on the tunnel began in 2023. It\u2019s not expected to be completed until 2035.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vargas approved a request made by both states to receive a temporary restraining order barring the administration from withholding funds. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Trump offered to restore the funds during negotiations with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) last month in exchange for renaming New York\u2019s Penn Station and Washington\u2019s Dulles International Airport after him, a source familiar with the discussion told The Post.<\/p>\n

However, Schumer reportedly told Trump that he didn\u2019t have the authority to fulfill the unusual request, according to\u00a0CNN<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cChuck Schumer suggested that to me about changing the name of Penn Station to Trump Station,\u201d Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.<\/p>\n

The senator vehemently denied the president\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolute lie. He knows it. Everyone knows it,\u201d Schumer\u00a0wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cOnly one man can restart the project and he can restart it with the snap of his fingers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work stoppage on the tunnel due to the frozen funds was expected to result in the immediate loss of nearly 1,000 jobs, according to the Gateway Development Commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The White House did not immediately respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge on Friday blocked President Trump from freezing $16 billion in funds for the massive Gateway…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":572125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,23003,14964,32898,69,5173,39800,24980,5248,401,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,19614,23763,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":["post-572124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-amtrak","tag-chuck-schumer","tag-department-of-transportation","tag-donald-trump","tag-infrastructure","tag-judges","tag-letitia-james","tag-metro","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-trains","tag-tunnels","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116027535364488996","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}