NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board has approved the revised congestion tolling plan announced last week by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
In a meeting on Monday, Nov. 18, the board approved a plan that will launch the toll plan for lower Manhattan with a basic peak-hours toll of $9, while raising it to $15 — the fee under the original plan — by 2031. All tolls at launch will be 60% of the original fees; they will rise to 80% (or $12 for most vehicles) in 2028.
Tolling — which will fund MTA capital projects — will begin on Monday, Jan. 5.
Jamie Torres-Springer, president of MTA Construction and Development, said in a press release that with the board action, the agency “will immediately reactivate major contracts for critical projects including work for the Second Avenue Subway Phase 2, accessibility projects, and state of good repair work.” Chief Accessibility Officer Quemuel Arroyo said the implementation of congestion pricing “advances the final 23 ADA stations in the 2020-2024 Capital Plan and is a major win in our efforts to keep delivering accessibility projects at an unprecedented pace.”
The website Gothamist reports the tolling program now must await approval from the Federal Highway Administration, which has a say because of federal funding for New York street projects. The FTA has to reevaluate the new tolls and an agreement with the MTA and city and state transportation departments, MTA CEO Janno Lieber said at a press conference. The MTA is hoping that FHA approval comes before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has said he would kill congestion pricing in his first week in office [see “New York governor introduces …,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 14, 2024]. But Lieber said it would be difficult to kill the program if it is up and running because it would have been approved through an established federal program, and that it should withstand legal challenges.
“I am confident that if and when we receive approval from the federal government, albeit the Biden administration-era federal government, it will stand the test in the courts,” Lievber said. “Taking away an approval for a program that the feds have been operating and invite New York and other states and localities to enroll in is not something that can just be pulled away.”
More on the tolling plan, including detailed information on toll rates, is available here.
The end result will be less people in downtown Manhattan and the less business will choose to stop doing business there. Money always flows where taxes are less. I suspect friends of the Mayor who do business there will get “special exemptions” for a fee to his campaign. I wish I were wrong but do not think I will be. Cheers
As a long time MTA user (and admirer) and one familiar with midtown gridlock, there is much to be hoped-for with the plan. Time will tell. Amidst all the legal wrangling the irony is that the guv had no legal authority to “pause” the plan.
Mr. Landey, why exemptions for “police, fire, sanitation, utility, buses, municipal fleet vehicles”? Make them pay, too!
Let’s just hope that Trump cancels this horrendous plan ASAP. What a nightmare.
Let’s just hope that Trump washes his hands of it and leaves the Ciity County and State of New York to deal with their own problem.
As I understand this, if I go from the Holland tunnel to the Brooklyn Bridge via Canal Street, I pay $9. But if I use the West side Highway and FDR Drive, I avoid the charge with this longer route. And from the Lincoln Tunnel I can take the West Side above 60th and then move across to FDR for access to Queens. Great.
Of course, the more successful this system is at reducing Manhattan traffic, the less the MTA gets in revenue. So they hope people are stupid and actually keep coming.
Well, Roger, it’s a sin tax. Tax cigarettes (booze, etc.) in the hope of lessening consumption while in the hope on increasing revenue.
What gets me about this program will be the difficulty of making it work. All sorts of vehicles would need to be exempted (police, fire, sanitation, utility, buses, municipal fleet vehicles, the list goes on and on – a bureaucracy will need to be set up to award or to deny the exemptions). Plus the fact that many people live in lower Manhattan and some of them own cars. Plus the arbitrariness of drawing a hard line at 60th Street. That and the administrative expenses of running the program (catching cheaters and trying to get the cheaters to pay up). Seems like MTA and Governor Kathy are getting themselves into a mess.