The Long Island Assn. is supporting a plan to put more freight on trains to cut down on the number of trucks in the New York metropolitan area.

According to New York’s Newsday, proponents want to build a freight-rail tunnel under New York Harbor from either New Jersey or Staten Island to Brooklyn. The New York City Economic Development Corp. is overseeing a two-year environmental impact study of the project, expected to be finished in May of next year.
Long Island’s business leaders support the construction of such a tunnel because it could reduce truck traffic on the island, especially the congested Long Island Expressway. Currently, fewer than 3 percent of shipments to Long Island are transported by rail.
Proponents say the number of commercial trucks entering New York City via the George Washington and Verrazano-Narrows Bridges could be reduced by almost a million a year by a proposed rail-freight tunnel under New York Harbor.
However, critics have said the tunnel is too expensive and that the heavy demand by freight carriers for existing railroad tracks in New Jersey and surrounding areas may not leave enough room to deflect much of the cargo now trucked in and out of the city.