Forgive the possible ignorance here, but why couldn't the tunnel go straight from North Bergen and connect with the track which the Lake Shore and Maple Leaf use? Seems like the bend in the tunnel to enter Macy's basement resulted in higher costs.
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Remember that the West Side Line connection into Penn Station has a single-track choke point where the tunnel is under other tracks leading into the station. It handles existing Amtrak frequencies OK and probably won't be much of a problem with MN or LIRR service of a few rush hours trains and possibliy every two hour off-peak service between Spuyten Diyvel and Penn, but probably cannot handle anything more than that.
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