Arlington wrote:[tunnel] straight to Secaucus, with...perhaps only the barest provision for [a station] on the NJ shoreline in the (far) future to tie with HBLR.
Tom V wrote:A stop at Lincoln harbor in Weehawken would provide a connection to the HBLRT, and its [on] a direct line between 24th street in Manhattan and Secaucus jct.
cruiser939 wrote: A station around the 9th St. stop for the HBLR (in Hoboken) would be much closer to a tunnel from 23rd St. in NYC [...] to Secaucus. Please don't tell me about the added benefit of connecting to the ferry
#5 - Dyre Ave wrote:Tunneling directly west from 23rd Street would put you about midway between Lincoln Harbor and 9th Street on HBLR.[launching further south would] put you closer to the 9th Street HBLR stop.
All true, and all mostly premature 'til we hear more from Bloomberg and Christie. Reaching 9th St, or Lincoln Harbor, or a new HBLR stop (in between) would add less than 0.2 miles to the length of a 4 mile tunnel, especially given flexibility at the NYC launch point. The routing and even a new HBLR station are cheap ($100m to $300m on a $5,000m project). Its the extra #7 Station (which I swag at $1,000m) that might be off the table for now.
Here's
a google map showing Lincoln Harbor, 9th St, and Hoboken Terminal alignments
But I will talk about the ferry...not for its service to W39th Street (which Cruiser939 rightly says would be of little benefit) but for a ferry's ability to serve Wall Street directly. Lincoln Harbor has (and 9th st does not have) two proven ingredients for development:
1) An existing nucleus of office development with Manhattan views
2) The option for Ferry service to Wall Street (World Financial Center / Vesey St)...not for commuting, but for trips to meetings during the day.
So waterfront developers would probably pay TIF taxes to pay for a station, something important to Bloomberg (its how the 7 extension is financed) and Christie (who won't use general revenues) if they were looking to fund an intermediate station.