Trump’s Transit Freeze Derails the Bergen Loop

For decades, commuters from northern New Jersey, Rockland County, and Orange County have awaited a simple but transformative promise: a one-seat, direct train ride into Manhattan. The key to that promise lies in the Bergen Loop, an essential piece of the multibillion-dollar Gateway Project designed to finally deliver streamlined transit for west-of-Hudson commuters.

The Bergen Loop would connect NJ Transit’s Main, Bergen, and Pascack Valley lines directly to the Northeast Corridor at Secaucus Junction. This connection would eliminate the common transfer that currently forces commuters to switch trains in a crowded, time-consuming scramble, cutting down commute times and improving reliability.

But thanks to the Trump administration’s freeze on $18 billion in federal Gateway funding, that promise now hangs in jeopardy. The pause threatens not only new Hudson River tunnels but the Bergen Loop itself, leaving tens of thousands of riders—many from Rockland and Orange Counties, who rely heavily on west-of-Hudson rail options—stuck in transit limbo.