Judge orders Trump administration to resume funding Hudson Tunnel Project [View all]
Source: Courthouse News Service
February 6, 2026
MANHATTAN (CN) -- A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to restore more than$200 million in federal funding for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River, on the very day the project ran out of cash and was winding down construction.
U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas, a Joe Biden appointee in the Southern District of New York, granted a temporary restraining order just hours after presiding over an emergency hearing on the project's fate. In an 11-page ruling, Vargas found that "the public interest would be harmed by a delay in a critical infrastructure project."
Without funding, state lawyers for New York and New Jersey warn that the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel Project will be left abandoned, posing a "substantial public safety and public health threat." "There is literally a massive hole in the earth in North Bergen, New Jersey, that has to be secured," said Shankar Duraiswamy of the New Jersey Attorney General's Office in the hearing.
New York and New Jersey filed a lawsuit earlier this week, accusing the Trump administration of "political retribution" in its withholding of allocated federal funds for the highly anticipated Hudson Tunnel -- a massive infrastructure effort aimed at increasing reliability for Amtrak and NJ Transit riders.
Read more: https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-orders-trump-administration-to-resume-funding-hudson-tunnel-project/
Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/hudson-tunnel-funding-ruling.pdf
REFERENCES
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143610455
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143612216
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