Regional Politics Hiding Real Port Issues
The fight between Governors Whitman and Pataki over Port Authority
money, which came to a head in recent weeks over Governor Pataki's refusal
to sign off on an incentive package the Port Authority wants to offer shipping
companies Sealand and Maersk, could set regional transportation coordination
back significantly. The issue raises a range of issues, some of which will
be addressed more fully in these pages in coming weeks.
- On the immediate issue of expanding the Newark/Elizabeth port to accommodate
a new Sealand/Maersk container hub, politics has obscured the fact that
no one has spelled out the related investment in "land side"
infrastructure - roads, rails and bridges - that will be needed to
serve a bigger port, or discussed what their impacts would be. The "Portway,"
the only concrete proposal to accommodate more land traffic out of the
port, could cost up to $1 billion, and its construction will fall to New
Jersey Department of Transportation, not the Port Authority. And how easy
will it be to get such infrastructure in place in a poisoned regional planning
environment? To date, the PA been unable to accomplish the relatively simple
task of winning a deal to link Staten Island's Howland Hook container terminal
with a rail line in Union County, NJ. It also seems nowhere close to starting
new rail car float barge operations across New York Harbor.
- Gov. Pataki's proposed division of Port Authority functions along state
lines obviously leaves the big issues of cross-Harbor freight movement,
cross-Hudson transit capacity and perhaps even airport transit funding
hanging (the NY-NJ fight has postponed release of the Port Authority's
1999 capital budget). But with New York facing a need for new transportation
resources, this is the time for New York to exercise constructive leadership
regarding the Port Authority's mission, not to act as though the agency
is something controlled by New Jersey that must be torn down.
