The MTA has already filed suit in an attempt to thwart the Trump administration from pulling the plug on New York City’s immensely unpopular congestion pricing toll hike.
In a statement issued less than an hour after US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent a letter putting Gov. Kathy Hochul on notice, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber praised the toll scheme and vowed to fight back against the administration’s “baseless effort.”
“Today, the MTA filed papers in federal court to ensure that the highly successful program — which has already dramatically reduced congestion, bringing reduced traffic and faster travel times, while increasing speeds for buses and emergency vehicles — will continue notwithstanding this baseless effort to snatch those benefits away from the millions of mass transit users, pedestrians and, especially, the drivers who come to the Manhattan Central Business District,” Lieber said in a statement.
The suit, filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, names Duffy and Federal Highway Administration Executive Director Gloria Shepherd, as well as their respective agencies — and touted enacting congestion pricing as having “embarked on a bold new program” to reduce congestion and promote mass transit.
“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’s statement concluded.
The first-in-the-nation plan, which charges drivers $9 to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street, went into effect in early January.
Duffy said in his letter to Hochul that the feds would work with New York state on an “orderly termination” of the tolls, but it was not immediately known when the $9 tax would cease being collected.
Hochul, who was said to have been having high-powered talks with Trump over congestion pricing in recent weeks, didn’t comment.
“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” Trump, who previously vowed to kill the toll, posted on Truth Social.
