MTA Sues USDOT as Trump Administration Moves to End NYC Congestion Pricing

The U.S. Dept. of Transportation stated in a letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Feb. 19 that it has rescinded its earlier approval for New York Metropolis’s first-in-the-country congestion pricing program. However state officers stated they might battle the transfer, submitting a lawsuit in federal court docket minutes after receiving the discover. 

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy known as this system, which is aimed toward decreasing site visitors congestion and is about to assist fund billions of {dollars}’ price of subway, bus and different transportation tasks, “a slap within the face to working class People and small enterprise house owners.” In a publish on social media, President Donald Trump claimed victory, declaring congestion pricing “DEAD” and New York “SAVED.” He added, “LONG LIVE THE KING!”

Hochul responded at a press convention held in entrance of New York Metropolis subway station turnstiles, saying that the congestion pricing program would stay in impact.

“New York hasn’t labored beneath a king in beneath 250 years,” Hochul stated, referencing the president’s publish. “We positive as hell aren’t going to begin now.”

In its lawsuit, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority alleges that the efforts to terminate this system “are illegal” and is asking a decide to declare the termination null and void in its go well with. 

“It’s mystifying that after 4 years of environmental research and 4,000 pages of environmental evaluate, the U.S. DOT would search to reverse course,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber stated on the governor’s press convention. 

Federal officers had been only one a part of a multi-party settlement and the Trump administration’s actions trying to terminate the settlement “clearly don’t require [MTA] to stop operation of this system,” the grievance states. “The established order is that congestion pricing continues, and until and till a court docket orders in any other case, [MTA] will proceed to function this system as required by New York regulation.”

Map courtesy MTA

MTA deliberate to fund tasks with $15 billion in bonds to be paid down with the collected tolls. These tasks embrace the $7.7-billion Second Avenue Subway Part 2 extension, plus accessibility enhancements at subway stations, subway sign modernization and bus infrastructure. 

Based on MTA’s grievance, its affiliate, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), beforehand issued $378.8 million in short-term notes funding infrastructure prices and already issued one other $500 million in short-term notes funding a portion of the $15 billion in tasks. TBTA additionally expects to shut a $500-million financial institution mortgage supporting the capital program this month. It’s counting on the toll funding to repay these money owed. Lieber stated that MTA has no contingency plan for the funding. 

“I feel it’s an actual mistake to permit infrastructure tasks to be on the whim of the politics of the second,” says Sam Schwartz, a former New York Metropolis site visitors commissioner and founding father of site visitors engineering agency Sam Schwartz Consulting LLC. “Individuals in different states which can be planning main infrastructure tasks shouldn’t have to fret {that a} new administration could are available after the Trump administration and instantly kill their tasks.”

The congestion value program applies to most of Manhattan south of sixtieth Road, with passenger automobiles going through $9 tolls throughout peak hours. It took effect Jan. 5, and MTA information present drivers rapidly started altering their patterns, arriving within the Manhattan Central Enterprise District (CBD) within the early morning earlier than peak pricing or taking public transit.

Lowered Congestion

Common weekday journey instances throughout river crossings into the CBD in January had been down throughout the board in comparison with a 12 months earlier, starting from a ten% discount for drivers coming into Manhattan through the Brooklyn or Manhattan bridges to a 48% discount for drivers coming into Manhattan through the Holland Tunnel, in line with MTA. Weekday journey instances throughout the CBD had been additionally largely down in comparison with a 12 months earlier. MTA additionally stated bus and subway ridership had been additionally up, as was ridership at some Lengthy Island Rail Street stations and all Metro-North Railroad stations. 

“New Yorkers are already seeing sooner commutes, much less site visitors and elevated security on streets, with a 51% drop in crash-related accidents,” stated Kate Slevin, government vice chairman of Regional Plan Affiliation, a nonprofit civic group, in an announcement. 

Even objects like restaurant reservations, Broadway present attendance, yellow cab journeys and industrial workplace leases had been up in January in comparison with a 12 months earlier than, in line with Lieber, which he attributed to the congestion pricing program. 

Duffy wrote in his letter to Hochul that Trump had requested him to evaluate the Federal Freeway Administration’s approval, which had been granted in November. Regardless of the advantages seen to this point, Duffy wrote that the scope of this system as authorized “exceeds the authority approved by Congress” as a result of there’s not a non-tolled different out there, and since, he claimed, the tolls had been primarily pushed by the necessity for MTA funding and never for different targets equivalent to decreasing congestion. 

“Commuters utilizing the freeway system to enter New York Metropolis have already financed the development and enchancment of those highways by means of the cost of fuel taxes and different taxes,” Duffy added within the assertion. “However now the toll program leaves drivers with none free freeway different, and as an alternative, takes more cash from working individuals to pay for a transit system and never highways.”

Federal Freeway Administration employees will contact the New York State Dept. of Transportation “to debate the orderly cessation of toll operations beneath this terminated pilot mission,” Duffy concluded his letter. It doesn’t present a agency finish date. 

Schwartz, the previous New York Metropolis site visitors commissioner, says he hopes the Trump administration will give this system no less than a 12 months to see if it meets its targets—or that Trump may even see the advantages in diminished site visitors on Fifth Avenue in entrance of Trump Tower.

“I feel that they’ve overstepped their bounds,” he says of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. “This program has been extremely profitable, way over I anticipated. Visitors speeds are up, site visitors accidents are down. Broadway is up. Each indication I’ve checked out is wanting good.”