The MTA has released data on revenue from congestion pricing in Manhattan, revealing that the agency collected over $48 million since the tolls began taking effect on January 5th through the end of the month. The newly implemented system charges a toll of $9 for vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street during peak hours, which are from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends; the off-peak fee is $2.25. Net revenue from the haul was $37.5 million, after accounting for the cost of operating the vehicle scanners, setting up a customer service center, credit card fees, and $2 million set aside for environmental mitigation efforts across the city.
The revenue is a pillar of the MTA’s plan to raise funds for much-needed repairs to public transportation infrastructure in New York City. The state agency expects to use $500 million of the yearly revenue to borrow more through bonds, enabling them to finance $15 billion worth of mass transit repairs as mandated by state law. The money will go to new train cars, increased accessibility (e.g., more elevators at subway stations), and the installation of modern subway signals (most of those the MTA currently uses were installed between the 1930s and the 1960s).
The $48 million haul was lower than the MTA’s original projection of $52 million for the program’s first month, although officials remain confident that they are on track to meet the legal threshold. Officials have said that the particularly cold weather in January likely had an effect, with the agency’s CFO Jai Patel noting during a committee meeting that “the spring, the summer, some of the fall, are higher traffic months.”
Despite the auspicious start, the program’s viability has now been thrown into uncertainty by President Donald Trump, who declared on social media last week that “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD,” directing the federal Department of Transportation to rescind its authorization for the program, which was required in part because some of the tolls are set up on federally controlled roads. The president’s move has set up a stand-off with his home state’s government over the issue, as Governor Kathy Hochul and MTA CEO Janno Lieber have vowed to fight the Trump administration in court, and will keep the program going in the meantime. A one-on-one meeting in Washington, D.C. on the matter between Hochul and Trump last Friday, which included a PowerPoint presentation, was apparently fruitless, with the governor stating afterwards: “I don’t know that we’re very persuasive on that front.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has dispatched Alina Habba, the president’s former defense attorney, to disparage the program on right-wing news outlets. “Congestion pricing is wrong. It doesn’t work and [U.S. DOT Secretary] Sean Duffy did a tremendous job by getting rid of it,” she said on Fox Business last Thursday. Habba’s husband, Gregg Reuben, is the chief executive of Centerpark, which operates 28 parking garages across the city, 17 of which are located in the congestion relief zone.
