But Christie said Wednesday none of that was enough to change his mind, given that New Jersey would have been forced to pick up any cost overruns.
"I cannot place upon the citizens of New Jersey an open-ended letter of credit, and that's what this project represented," the governor said. "Nothing in the last two weeks changed that."
Christie argued that although the tunnel would benefit the entire region, New Jersey would have borne the largest burden in paying for it.
The decision is likely to bring even more attention to Christie, a freshman Republican governor, when his star is rising within conservative circles around the country. The former federal prosecutor has been touring the country in recent weeks in support of fellow Republicans seeking office. He has won unstinting praise from some Republicans for his tough talk of smaller government and accountability.
Christie said Wednesday that his opposition to the tunnel, to be known as ARC, for Access to the Region's Core, was not philosophical, but merely a matter of dollar and cents.
"We are changing the way we do business in this state," Christie said. "We are not going to be signing blank checks."
At the start of work on the tunnel in June 2009, it was estimated that the project, which would have more than doubled train capacity between New York and New Jersey, would cost $8.7 billion. Recently, federal transportation officials have estimated the cost between $9.8 billion and $12.7 billion, but the Christie administration estimated that costs overruns could have reached $6 billion.
The Federal Transit Administration and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had each committed $3 billion to the project, but New Jersey would have been responsible for additional costs.
