Gateway Program (Northeast Corridor)

This article is about the planned Northeast Corridor rail project in New Jersey and New York. For the commercial complex, see Gateway Center (Newark). For the mixed-use building, see The Gateway (New Brunswick, New Jersey).

Gateway Program
Construction of a future Gateway Program tunnel portal at West Side Yard in Manhattan in 2014
Overview
Status	Under Construction
Owner	Amtrak
Termini	Newark, New Jersey New York City
Website	gatewayprogram.org
Service
Type	Rail capacity expansion
Services	Northeast Corridor
History
Planned opening	2035
Technical
Character	Underground, elevated
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The Gateway Program is an ongoing expansion and renovation of the Northeast Corridor (NEC) rail line between Newark, New Jersey, and New York City along the right-of-way between Newark Penn Station and New York Penn Station. The project is intended to build new rail bridges in the New Jersey Meadowlands, dig a new set of tunnels under Bergen Hill (Hudson Palisades) and the Hudson River, and rehabilitate the existing 1910 tunnel, all with the goal of doubling train capacity to four tracks along the right-of-way, since the current two-track rail line, used both by Amtrak and NJ Transit Rail Operations (NJT), has reached its full capacity of 24 trains per hour.

It was unveiled as the Gateway Project in 2011, one year after the cancellation of the somewhat similar Access to the Region's Core (ARC) project. The need for renovations increased after Hurricane Sandy damaged the North River Tunnels the following year. It took nearly a decade to line up funding and regulatory approval for the biggest component, the new Hudson River tunnel, which began construction in 2023 and is scheduled to open in 2035, with rehabilitation of the old tunnels to follow by 2038. Other components that will complete the full four-track buildout between Newark Penn Station and New York, like the replacement Sawtooth Bridges, are in the planning stage, while some like the Portal South bridge still await commitments and funding.