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New York
CNN
—
The Trump administration is moving ahead with its plan to kill New York City’s congestion pricing – a controversial tolling program designed to help raise millions in critical infrastructure funding and decrease traffic in Manhattan’s most congested zones.
In a letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Department of Transportation would rescind the agreement, effectively ending the tolling structure which went into effect early this year.
“New York State’s congestion pricing plan is a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners,” Duffy wrote in his letter. “Every American should be able to access New York City regardless of their economic means. It shouldn’t be reserved for an elite few.”
The program, which went into effect on January 5, created a $9 toll for drivers entering Manhattan south of 60th Street during peak traffic hours and $2.25 overnight to enter Manhattan below 60th Street, known as the congestion relief zone.
It also created discounts for lower-income drivers and exemptions for others. The effort, which has been in the works for decades, was supposed to help raise millions of dollars in funding for the city’s aging transportation infrastructure and help ease congestion in some of the city’s most clogged streets.
In his letter, Duffy argued the city’s tolling system contradicts the federal highway program, which does not allow tolling on roads built with federal funds unless Congress provides an exemption.
“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.”
Duffy also said the program fails to provide an alternative for people who do not have a choice but to drive into the city. It is not clear from the letter when the federal government will end the program.
The move was met by an immediate legal challenge in New York. Janno Lieber, chair and chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is in charge of managing the toll program, called the move a “baseless effort” to remove benefits the program has already delivered – including a decrease in traffic, faster travel times and increased speeds for emergency vehicles.
The agency said it has filed suit in federal court to stop the order.
“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,” Lieber said.
President Donald Trump, whose Manhattan home is in the center of the congestion zone, had made his dislike of the program clear, vowing to kill the toll soon after he took office. He cheered the Department of Transportation directive in a Truth Social post.
“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” Trump wrote.
Hochul decried the Trump administration’s move Wednesday.
“We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king,” Hochul 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.”
Hochul addressed Trump’s order during a raucous rally at Grand Central Station – one of the city’s major commuter hubs – where she accused the president of deliberately wanting to hurt his hometown as part of a “revenge tour.”
“I’m here to say New York hasn’t labored under a king for 250 years,” Hochul said. “I don’t care if you love congestion pricing or you hate it, this is an attack on our sovereign identity, our independence from Washington.”
The Department of Transportation order to stop New York City’s controversial congestion pricing tolling program was expected but still took Hochul and her top aides by surprise on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the governor’s thinking.
Hochul, who was set to meet with Trump in Washington, DC this week, had recently been working to keep the program alive, the person said.
Aware of the president’s dislike of the tolling system, Hochul spoke with Trump by phone several times as part of her attempt to present him and senior level White House staff with data showing the tolls are not keeping people from coming into the city – a central criticism of opponents of the plan.
During conversations in January, Hochul tried to convey to the president that the program was delivering some marked results.
It is not clear what led to the secretary’s letter to Hochul on Wednesday, notifying the state the federal government would move to end the program.
Opposition to the program has caused some political headaches for Hochul, who initially delayed its implementation until after the presidential election out of fear it could endanger Democrats in battleground districts outside the city, where the program is unpopular.
Detractors of the program, including some who unsuccessfully tried to use the courts to stop its implementation, celebrated the US transportation department’s decision.
“It was always a three-strike loser and a nonstarter for Staten Island – more traffic, more air pollution and more tolls,” Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said in a statement. “The program was revived unceremoniously, at a politically opportune time for political reasons. To bring an end to the program is the right thing not just for Staten Island but for the City as a whole.”
Across the Hudson River, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy also celebrated the move to stop congestion pricing, saying it unfairly targeted the many New Jerseyans who commute into Manhattan every day.
“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,” Murphy said in a statement.
Despite the opposition, there is some early evidence the program could be working.
While car traffic has decreased, more people visited lower Manhattan business areas, according to preliminary data from the MTA.
Around 1.2 million fewer vehicles entered the zone in January, a 7.5% drop from January 2024, according to the MTA. It took up to 30% less time during rush hour to get across bridges and through tunnels into lower Manhattan that month. Drive times across 34th Street – one of the city’s most congested areas – were cut nearly in half.
In January, around 36 million people visited business districts in the zone, according to the data – about 1.5 million people more than January 2024. Attendance at Broadway shows also rose 17% in January annually, despite predictions that congestion pricing would hurt Broadway.
