Avid train rider and Vice President Joe Biden, on a conference call Monday with reporters, mistakenly claimed that the planned Hudson River tunnel between New Jersey and Midtown Manhattan would provide a much-anticipated route for automobiles. Problem is, it's for trains.
The $8.7 billion tunnel is among the largest new projects to be funded in the Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus package.
"Look, this is designed, this totally new tunnel, is designed to provide for automobile traffic," Biden said, according to The Record of Bergen County. "It's something, as you know, up your way, that's been in the works and people have been clamoring for for a long time."
The Record, which asked Biden the tunnel-related question on the call, called the vice president out on the error. The north Jersey newspaper noted that the tunnel would accommodate more New Jersey Transit trains during peak hours -- cars are not part of the equation.
The mistake is notable given the former Delaware senator's well-documented affinity for trains and frequent Amtrak commutes between Washington and Wilmington during his Senate years. Biden also inadvertently irked public transit when he warned Americans in late April not to travel in "confined places" for fear of contracting swine flu