Gateway to Heaven.

A successful Gateway Program could transform the whole US economy. How will we know?

Have you heard of the Gateway Program? It’s a series of projects which seek, nominally, to better connect New York Penn Station to points north and south, from Washington DC to Boston. This part of the country is a “megaregion” driving the US economy and upgrading these tunnels could dramatically redefine the way people and goods move across the Northeast in the 21st century.

Whether you believe megaregions are super-regional by definition or simply another layer of government to manage, there’s no denying the need for some changes to this system and these assets (or liabilities), which have long surpassed an insurable useful life.

A graphic summary is below:

The Gateway Program is a catch-all for a series of projects meant to modernize, rehabilitate and alleviate capacity constraints on Amtrak’s most profitable route.

I’m not going to spend too much time on picking apart the 1000-page Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Portal North Bridge Project in New Jersey. And I won’t s…