MTA Says It’s Still on Track with Congestion Pricing, but Who Knows for How Long?

Despite an order from the Trump Administration to turn off the congestion pricing tolls on March 21, Gov. Kathy Hochul told the MTA board on Feb. 26 that she has no plans to back down.

“Public transit is facing an existential threat from Washington right now, whether it’s the overall funding or whether it is the attack on congestion pricing,” Hochul said in an address to the MTA’s board. “One thing we’ve established: New Yorkers do not back down.”

The board heard that the tolls raised just under $49 million from Jan. 5 through Jan. 31 when cars with E-Z Pass started getting charged $9 to enter streets below 60th St. between the hours of 5 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote Hochul that the federal approval of the toll which had been granted during the Biden Administration was being revoked. “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,” Duffy wrote.

A second notice sent to the MTA ordered that the tolls be halted by March 21.

Hochul said she was keeping the tolls operational until a judge orders her stop and had already filed suit against the federal effort to withdraw approval.

As the congestion pricing controversy remains at full boil, the Hochul and the MTA board seemed to be taking measures to highlight a past success. They moved the board meeting location from its usual home at 2 Broadway and instead held it the MTA’s newest train station, Grand Central Madison, to commemorate the second anniversary on February 27 of the opening of the much delayed terminal that cost $11 billion.

In the hour devoted to hearing from the public, congestion pricing was top of mind. Some wanted to know if there was a Plan B, and if alternative funding needs to be in place, in case Washington does cut the program.

The actual meeting of the Board started with an ebulent MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber noting the terminal has reduced travel times for East Side commuters, created new travel options with 40 percent more service and has made the Long Island Rail Road network more viable during unplanned disruptions, especially those in Penn Station that interrupt service to and from Manhattan. He noted, “While New Jersey is in the process of the Gateway Project that will offer a second entry to Pennsylvania Station for both NJ Transit and Amtrak, Grand Central Madison is our Gateway now for Long Island commuters. It is the center of transit that makes New York possible.”

The MTA chair then addressed Congestion Pricing, noting that since it’s start, 2.8 million less vehicles have been in the congestion zone since it’s January 5 start. He said it is meeting revenue projections, even if some critics noted that the MTA appeared to quietly lower the projected amount of tolls it will collect in year one to $500 million, down from the $600 million projected before the $9 toll went into effect.

Hochul joined the meeting at 12:15 p.m. to rousing applause by the Board members and the audience. “This is where the action is,” she noted of the MTA in its newest fight. Continuing her thought, the Governor said of the MTA, “You are the ones who got congestion pricing done. I want to applaud every single one of you. So, thank you.”

Hochul was back from a Feb. 21 trip to Washington D.C. in which she tried to sway Trump to change his mind on congestion pricing. And taking note of Trump’s short attention span she said she had asked her team to prepare a presentation with “real simple terms” and “real nice pictures.”

Trump appeared unmoved. Hochul vowed to continue the fight for the toll which is going to be used to finance infrastructure repairs for the mass transit sytem.

“I did my very best,” she said. “The fight’s not over.”

The toll remains controversial. In addition to Trump, it has been opposed by unions representing first responders and the United Federation of Teachers who feel it is an unfair tax on their members who use personal cars to do work for their city jobs inside the zone. And unlike London where car owners inside the zone get a 90 percent discount, car owners in Manhattan trapped within the zone pay full fare.

One commuter who lives inside the zone told friends he now drives his car above 60th St shortly after midnight then turns around and re-enters the zone, paying the off peak toll of $2.25. He parks and drives to work the following morning. But since he already paid the reduced rate toll shortly after midnight, he doesn’t get charged again on his return trip.

Commuters who are still driving say it has cut commute times substantially over bridges and through tunnels. Ambulances, surprisingly are still moving slower within the zone, but cross town buses are moving more quickly. Locals say with out of towners leaving cars home, there are more parking spaces opening up. And one commentator on social media noted fewer angry car owners honking horns at the rush hour traffic jam outside the Holland Tunnel.

Lieber said after six weeks of congestion pricing, even some critics are coming around. “After six months, we have less traffic, faster travel, safer streets and most of all, a lot of people who thought they were against congestion pricing now saying they love it, we gotta keep it.”