Manhattan congestion pricing to begin June 30: MTA

Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News
Updated ·3 min read
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The MTA will officially begin tolling drivers entering Midtown and lower Manhattan on June 30, transit brass announced Friday, despite ongoing legal challenges to the agency’s congestion pricing plan.

The toll is set to go into effect just after midnight on Sunday, June 30.

“Five years after the legislature made congestion pricing New York State law, and with 4,000 pages of analysis, hundreds of hearings and outreach meetings behind us, New Yorkers are ready for the benefits — less traffic, cleaner air, safer streets and better transit,” MTA chair Janno Lieber said in a statement.

The plan, which will charge a base rate of $15 a day for motor vehicle access to Manhattan surface streets below 61st St., is intended to cut down on traffic in the city’s central business district and raise $1 billion a year towards the MTA’s capital budget.

Trucks, buses, and other large vehicles will be tolled at a higher rate. Discounts will be available for drivers coming into the zone after its day hours schedule, and for drivers entering via the already-tolled tunnels.

MTA officials said Friday that enrollment was now open for congestion pricing discount and exemption programs.

Any household making under $50,000 a year can apply for a discount that will apply after the first 10 trips in a given calendar month.

Drivers with disabilities are also eligible for an exemption, as are emergency vehicles and buses that make regular commuter trips.

Discounts and exemptions can be applied for on the MTA’s website.

The June 30 start date for the contested congestion pricing plan is two weeks later than expected.

Attorneys for the MTA, which is currently defending the plan in both New York and New Jersey federal courts, told a judge earlier this year that tolling would begin in mid-June.

The plan still faces legal challenges from the administration of NJ Gov. Phil Murphy, as well as a consortium of public sector unions and city residents.

Judge Leo Gordon, presiding over the New Jersey suit, has said he expects to rule on the case before mid-June, but offered no specifics.

“I can’t tell you if that’s May 1st, May 19th, May 30th, June 1st or June 10th,” he told attorneys following oral arguments earlier this month. “I’m going to do my best.”

The New York suits are set to be heard next month in Manhattan federal court.

Transit advocates greeted the scheduled beginning news Friday.

“Congestion pricing will be a win-win-win for all New Yorkers, commuters and visitors and bring better public transit, cleaner air, and freer moving traffic,” Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for Riders Alliance, said in a statement. “It cannot happen soon enough.”

But Randy Mastro, the attorney representing NJ Gov. Murphy’s administration in it’s suit to stop congestion pricing, balked at the MTA’s announcement.

“Not so fast. We are awaiting a court ruling as early as next month on whether the MTA’s unprecedented congestion pricing scheme can go forward,” he said in a statement.

Mastro — who has also made headlines recently as Mayor Adams’ presumptive pick for the city’s top law job — reiterated the argument he has made in court: that the MTA’s environmental review has “obvious deficiencies,” and that the transit agency’s plan does not address expected pollution increases in New Jersey due to changing traffic patterns.

The MTA has repeatedly countered that its environmental assessment was longer and more in-depth than most, and that money will be available to aid New Jersey communities.

Regardless, the Garden State’s suit “is only one of the many pending and anticipated lawsuits challenging this hugely flawed plan,” Mastro said. “So the jury is still out.”