The Trump administration's latest deadline for abolishing congestion pricing tolls in Manhattan passed Wednesday with the tolls still in place and a temporary injunction from a federal judge that effectively ensures tolls can continue being collected until at least June 9.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman’s order on Tuesday temporarily prohibits the U.S. Department of Transportation from retaliating against the city and state for continuing the tolling program, which charges most drivers $9 during peak traffic hours motorists to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. U.S. DOT Secretary Sean Duffy had previously threatened to halt funds to New York for transportation projects beginning on May 28 if the program was not abolished.
The congestion tolls, the first of their kind in the U.S., are also opposed by Gov. Phil Murphy, who cites the costs to New Jersey commuters and businesses making deliveries, as well as pollution impacting North Jersey because of increased traffic from drivers seeking alternate routes to avoid the tolls. Murphy has called New York’s congestion tolls a “blatant cash grab.”
The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority, which operates the congestion tolling program, sued the Trump administration earlier this year after the US DOT moved to revoke the former Biden administration’s previous approval of the congestion pricing program. The federal court order this week prohibits the federal government from following through with its threat to withhold New York transportation funds until at least June 9 while the case is being litigated.
Since the new tolls started Jan. 5, the MTA has said traffic is down in Manhattan’s Central Business District, mass transit ridership is up, and the tolling program is on track to generate roughly $500 million in its first year. The MTA expects to finance more than $15 billion in mass transit upgrades with congestion toll revenue.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has remained defiant in the face of the threatened federal transportation cuts, called Judge Liman’s temporary restraining order a “massive victory for New York commuters.”
“Secretary Duffy can issue as many letters and social media posts as he wants, but a court has blocked the Trump Administration from retaliating against New York for reducing traffic and investing in transit,” Hochul said in a statement issued by her office Tuesday. “Congestion pricing is legal, it's working, and we're keeping the cameras on.”
