Vice President Biden took a shot at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Monday for his controversial decision to nix a proposed Hudson River rail tunnel.
At an event announcing a major overhaul of New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Biden told New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo he should have spoken to him about new rail tunnels.
{mosads}“I’d ask Gov. Christie to come back and talk about it, but that’s another issue for another day,” Biden said.
Recent train delays along the Northeast Corridor caused by aging tunnels and bridges, combined with a high-stakes fight in Congress on highway funding, has revived a debate over infrastructure spending ahead of the 2016 election.
Christie launched his presidential bid last month. Biden is reportedly considering running for president, although he personally has dropped few hints about whether he will enter the race.
This week, Christie defended his 2010 decision to cancel the $12.4 billion tunnel project, which would have doubled commuter rail capacity to New York City. He said he feared New Jersey — and not New York — would be stuck paying for cost overruns.
“That’s what we were looking for, is to be on the hook for cost overruns on a major transit project,” he told Larry Kudlow on WABC. “It’s a recipe for disaster.”
If he is elected president, Christie said he would convene a meeting with the governors of New York and New Jersey and the secretary of Transportation to make sure all parties pay an equal share of the tunnel project.
Biden said the American middle class is “declining” and one way to bring it back is through major infrastructure projects that create jobs and spur economic growth.
The $4 billion project at LaGuardia would transform the maligned airport, known for its crowded terminals and long security lines, by building one unified terminal with better connections to mass transit.
Cuomo said the project would create 8,000 new construction jobs. A new hotel planned for John F. Kennedy Airport would result in 3,700 new jobs, he said.
The vice president praised Christie’s New York counterpart for “thinking big” to transform the region’s airports.
“When others proposed piecemeal approaches to fixing LaGuardia Airport, you demanded a complete plan, a complete vision, a complete airport worthy of what really is … the greatest city of the world,” Biden said of Cuomo.
Biden’s appearance at LaGuardia came 18 months after he said if you blindfolded a man and took him to the New York airport, “he would think ‘I must be in some third world country.’”
Biden joked on Monday that his barb was followed by an overhaul of the airport.
“I wish everything I said that was truthful but controversial turned out this way,” the vice president said.