The $16 billion, long-needed Gateway Project scored a temporary victory when a U.S. Federal Appeals Court on Feb. 13 let stand a lower federal court ruling by Judge Jeanette Vargas that the Trump administration must hand over up to $200 million that the administration had illegally withheld from the project since late September 2025. The Project had been approved by Congress and signed into law in 2021.
The purpose of the Gateway Project is broad: It will rehabilitate a 1910 rail tunnel underneath the Hudson River, connecting New York and New Jersey, through which more than 200,000 passengers travel each day; dig a new set of rail tunnels under Bergen Hill, New Jersey, and the Hudson River (connecting New Jersey to New York); build new rail bridges in the New Jersey Meadowlands; build the second phase of the Second Avenue Subway in New York City, extending it from Manhattan’s 96th to 125th St.; renovate Penn Station in New York City, one of the world’s largest and busiest rail stations; and other projects.
