President Biden’s sweeping and costly infrastructure plan, which calls for $621 billion in transit spending alone over eight years, includes funding that could, if fully realized, modernize mass transit in the northeast for decades to come.

The ambitious proposal, known as the The American Jobs Plan, is a $2 trillion spending plan that includes everything from ensuring the entire country has broadband, to replacing every lead drinking water pipe in the country, to making the northeast’s rail network as fast and reliable as ones in Europe and Asia.

“It’s really talking about having an interconnected multimodal system that is ready for the next 100 years of growth, and it’s so vital for the growth of our region,” Tom Wright, president and

CEO of the Regional Plan Association [RPA] told Gothamist/WNYC.

Transportation professionals and lawmakers argue the most costly and important project in the northeast that would benefit from Biden’s plan is Gateway.

Gateway is a series of projects aimed at increasing rail capacity between New York and New Jersey. The most crucial and expensive parts of the project consist of building a new tunnel between New York and New Jersey and repairing the existing tunnel, which was flooded and damaged during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The tunnel work alone is pegged at $12 billion. The rest of the project, which includes building more platforms south of Penn Station, could cost another $18 billion.

Biden’s plan would create several pools of money from which the Gateway project could draw, including $80 billion for a backlog of Amtrak repairs and upgrades, as well as a $25 billion “dedicated fund to support ambitious projects that have tangible benefits to the regional or national economy but are too large or complex for existing funding programs.”

Amtrak and leadership at the Gateway projects said they’re excited about what’s to come.

“We will continue to work every day with this engaged and supportive Federal partner to meet our obligations in delivering this vision,” a spokesperson for the Gateway program wrote in a statement.

The project was held up during the Trump administration over what officials said were unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles at the Department of Transportation, such as disagreements over the funding commitments from New York and New Jersey. The project had support from governors of both states, and bi-partisan congressional support.

“Gateway is a project of national significance for a region of the country that generates one-fifth of the entire U.S. economy and must be completed without further delay,” New Jersey Senator Bob Mendez, a longtime champion of the project, wrote in a statement. “It will provide New Jersey commuters with safer and more reliable service and is the type of smart infrastructure investment that will pay for itself several times over in economic growth."

While there’s no explicit commitment in Biden’s proposal to fund the MTA’s $51.5 billion capital plan, which includes upgrades to signals, and adding elevators to stations, the agency may be able to draw from the pools of transit-dedicated money in Biden’s plan.

"The MTA region contributes nearly 10 percent of the national GDP and carries 40 percent of the country’s mass transit customers and we look forward to working with Senate Majority Leader Schumer and the entire New York Congressional Delegation to secure as much funding as possible for the MTA to help lead New York's recovery," MTA Chairman Pat Foye wrote in a statement.

Throughout the pandemic, the MTA has been undergoing a transformation at headquarters, streamlining how it operates and carries out projects. The procurement process has moved from a paperwork to a digital operating system.

Wright, with the RPA, said efficiencies like this are helping the MTA save money and become a reliable company that contractors want to work for.

“They’re starting to see more competition, more contractors interested,” Wright said.

The MTA has a history of cost overruns and delays on its infrastructure projects, such as the recent Second Avenue subway extension, East Side Access or the new 7 line station at Hudson Yards. There were also problems with a $600 million fleet of new R179 subway cars, which had to be taken out of service due to malfunctioning doors.

Amtrak has had its own issues with late trains, caused by mechanical issues and staffing problems. There was also a recent report from Amtrak’s Office of the Inspector General noting “a pattern of weak procurement practices,” resulting in problems managing and overseeing its contracts with vendors and contractors.

Nonetheless, Wright believes the MTA and Amtrak have both turned a corner.

“Today these agencies are in a much better place and much better able to handle that level of funding and use it wisely,” Wright said.

Biden’s plan still relies on congressional approval, and some Republicans are opposing it, because it would be partly funded by corporate tax increases.The plan calls for raising the corporate tax rate to 28%; former president Donald Trump had lowered it from 35% to 21%.

Without federal funds it’s unclear how Gateway and big MTA projects like the Second Avenue subway extension will be completed.