Rail Proposal Calls For Long Island Sound Tunnel

The fabled cross-Sound tunnel, a project that's taken on many forms and spanned the decades, has gained new life as part of a high-speed rail proposal serving 27 million passengers connecting Boston with Washington D.C.  

As part of a pitch to Amtrak for its Northeast Corridor vision plan, the University of Pennsylvania's School of Design called for a tunnel spanning the Long Island Sound from Port Jefferson to Milford, Conn., according to The Hartford Courant.

That's nothing new for Long Islanders, who were told when the first section of the that the roadway would eventually connect Oyster Bay with Rye, N.Y. The Rte. 135 tunnel never materialized.

The 450-mile, $103 billion route offered up by PennDesign would include an 18-mile long tunnel, phase two of the overall project to be completed by 2035. The rail would make in Ronkonkoma a hub and move west to undisclosed stops in Suffolk and Nassau en route to JFK Airport and then New York City.

Under the cross-Sound plan, Long Island would be linked more closely with New Haven and Hartford.

Amtrak's own proposal, with trains reaching top speeds of 200 mph, bypasses Long Island entirely and is estimated at $151 billion.

The dual plans are both part of an overall effort that has taken shape since President Barack Obama took office to improve rail service in the so-called Northeast "mega-region," and get more high-speed trains in service between Washington and Boston.

Half of the new rail system would be built adjacent to existing lines, such as the Long Island Rail Road, the PennDesign report said. It would cut down congestion on roadways and at airports, reduce pollution and traffic deaths as well as for Long Islanders.

Another benefit to the new rail line, the report said, would be coupling with the telecom industry to lay fiber optic cable and energy companies for natural gas pipelines.

With reporting by  and .