The Trump administration on Wednesday rescinded federal approval for New York’s nascent congestion pricing program, throwing the tolling effort into limbo.
Starting in January, the congestion pricing charges most drivers $9 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street, though people entering from New Jersey through the tunnels get credits and discounts for off peak-hours. The program is intended to deter drivers from entering lower Manhattan in order to ease the area’s severe traffic and pollution and raise funding for mass transit.
But it has faced backlash from New Jersey and New York, even as the majority of people traveling into the city do so by public transit. The Murphy administration went to court and vowed to keep up the legal challenges.
But in steps President Donald Trump, who promised during his campaign to halt the pricing, and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday week sent a letter to New York officials to announce the move, arguing that the plan violated federal law and regulation.
“New York State’s congestion pricing plan is a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners,” Duffy said in a statement. “Commuters using the highway system to enter New York City have already financed the construction and improvement of these highways through the payment of gas taxes and other taxes. But now the toll program leaves drivers without any free highway alternative, and instead, takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system and not highways. It’s backward and unfair.”
Duffy’s rationale will be tested in court. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority filed a lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday seeking to stop the Trump administration.
“It’s mystifying that after four years and 4,000 pages of federally-supervised environmental review – and barely three months after giving final approval to the Congestion Relief Program – USDOT would seek to totally reverse course,” said Janno Lieber, the chair and CEP of the MTA, in a statement.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Lieber said the toll cameras would stay on until there was a court order directing them to be turned off.
Congestion pricing took effect on Jan. 5 and the MTA says it was already cutting down on travel times and car volume in Manhattan’s central business district, while boosting foot traffic to local businesses.
On Wednesday, environmental groups and transit advocates called Trump’s move harmful and shortsighted, but critics of the toll applauded the action. They included Gov. Phil Murphy, who sent a letter to Trump on Inauguration Day asking him to stop the toll.
“I want to thank President Trump and Secretary Duffy for their efforts to halt the current congestion pricing program in Manhattan’s Central Business District,” Murphy said in a statement Wednesday. “While I have consistently expressed openness to a form of congestion pricing that meaningfully protects the environment and does not unfairly burden hardworking New Jersey commuters, the current program lines the MTA’s pockets at the expense of New Jerseyans.”
