Department of Transportation Pulls Plug on Manhattan’s Congestion Pricing Toll Program

The Trump administration is taking an axe to New York City’s controversial congestion pricing plan, with the President posting on Truth Social “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” — even as the MTA vowed to keep fighting for the tolls.In a letter sent on Wednesday afternoon to New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, the Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, said that the Federal Highway Administration would be terminating its prior approval of the “pilot project.”The department stated that it would be rescinding an agreement made last November under the federal agency’s Value Pricing Pilot Program — effectively ending the Central Business District Tolling Program that charges drivers as much as $9 during peak hours for entering Manhattan below 60th street.“New York State’s congestion pricing plan is a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners,” Mr. Duffy said in a statement announcing the new measure.The letter to Ms. Hochul cites two reasons for ending the pilot program — the plan’s failure to provide an alternative, toll-free option for drivers and because the toll was imposed not in order to reduce traffic and congestion but instead to raise revenue for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.“Users of the highway network within the CBD tolling area have already financed the construction and improvement of these highways through the payment of gas taxes and other taxes. The recent imposition of this CBDTP pilot project upon residents, businesses, and commuters left highway users without any free highway alternative on which to travel within the relevant area,” Mr. Duffy said in the letter.“Moreover, the revenues generated under this pilot program are directed toward the transit system as opposed to the highways,” he said. “I do not believe that this is a fair deal.”It was not immediately clear if and when the pricing program would end. The MTA said in a statement that they have already filed a motion with federal court to block the DOT’s decision.“Today, the MTA filed papers in federal court to ensure that the highly successful program — which has already dramatically reduced congestion, bringing reduced traffic and faster travel times, while increasing speeds for buses and emergency vehicles — will continue notwithstanding this baseless effort to snatch those benefits away from the millions of mass transit users, pedestrians and, especially, the drivers who come to the Manhattan Central Business District,” MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said in a statement. “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.”The move makes good on a promise made by Mr. Trump during campaign season, when he vowed to kill the program as soon as he was back in the White House, citing it as a “massive, regressive tax.”“It will be virtually impossible for New York City to come back as long as the congestion tax is in effect,” Mr. Trump said in November as the city prepared to implement the plan.In a statement, Ms. Hochul insisted that support for the program is “growing every day” and promised to fight the president’s decision. “We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king,” she said. “The MTA has initiated legal proceedings in the Southern District of New York to preserve this critical program. We’ll see you in court.”

Department of Transportation Pulls Plug on Manhattan’s Congestion Pricing Toll Program

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