Nov. 28 (UPI) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo traveled to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to pitch a tunnel project to President Donald Trump.
The two spoke about the so-called Gateway Tunnel project over lunch at the White House. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer also were in attendance, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said.
“The group discussed a number of important topics, focusing on infrastructure,” Gidley said in an email to Bloomberg. “The president cares deeply for his home state of New York and always appreciates the opportunity to engage with the governor on issues important to the state and region.”
It’s not the first time the two have met to discuss New York City’s urgent need for a new train tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey under the Hudson River. They spoke last year but failed to reach an agreement on how to go about building the tunnel.
The Gateway project is expected to cost about $13 billion, most of which would go toward building the new tunnel. Some $2 billion of those funds would go toward rehabilitating an existing 100-plus-year-old tunnel flooded by Hurricane Sandy. The existing tunnel is used for Amtrak and NJ Transit trains.
Despite previous criticism against Trump, Cuomo said he’s hoping to come to an agreement on the need for the project.
“Forget Democrat, forget Republicans, forget the politics, forget Senator Schumer and legislative negotiations,” he said on WNYC radio Tuesday. “Sometimes there’s just a right thing to do. We have two tunnels that we are really on the brink of a very bad situation because you don’t build a new tunnel overnight.”
A previous agreement between New York, New Jersey and the Obama administration would have seen the states and the federal split the cost of the project 50-50, but Trump has declined to show support for the deal.
If approved, the new tunnel would take an estimated seven years to construct.
Earlier this week, Cuomo told WNYC radio he had no plans to run for president in 2020.
“I am ruling it out. I ran for governor, I have a full plate, I have many projects. I’m going to be here doing the job of governor,” he said. “I am governor of New York and I have a lot to do.”
