Christie Endorses Extension of New York Subway to New Jersey

(Updates with Christie comment in second paragraph.)

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he would support an extension of New York City’s No. 7 subway from Manhattan to Secaucus.

New Jersey will “do our share” if New York state and the city contribute to the financing, Christie said in an interview broadcast on WCBS radio in New York. “All of this will be able to come together.”

Christie last year killed an $8.7 billion commuter rail tunnel intended to double rush-hour capacity, citing potential cost overruns. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg subsequently proposed to extend the No. 7 subway line to northern New Jersey.

“This is something where the economics seem to make some sense,” Bloomberg said at a news conference today. “We could work with New Jersey and the federal government and the state government here to get some money to do it.”

The No. 7 subway, which travels between the borough of Queens and Times Square, is already being extended to the West Side of Manhattan by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to serve Related Co.’s Hudson Yards riverside development.

In March, Christie said he’d be willing to consider another rail tunnel so long as New York state and city helped pay for it.

The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News’s parent, Bloomberg LP.

--With assistance from Esme E. Deprez in New York. Editors: Pete Young, Ted Bunker

To contact the reporter on this story: Elise Young in Trenton at eyoung30@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net