Hochul’s $9-a-day MTA congestion pricing plan a go with key approval from federal regulators

Federal, state and city transportation regulators signed off on the MTA’s new congestion pricing program for Manhattan Friday, clearing the final roadblocks ahead of an expected Jan. 5 start to tolling.
After pausing the plan, Gov. Hochul has revived the plan with a proposed starting toll of  $9-a-day for motorists traveling south of 60th Street in Manhattan.
“Today is the moment that we’ve been waiting for,” MTA chairman Janno Lieber told reporters following the announcement. “We cleared the final bureaucratic hurdle to implementing congestion pricing.”
Tolling advocates widely saw fast approval from the feds as key to the program’s success, given that President-elect Donald Trump has said he would kill the controversial plan.
“We are pleased to have received formal approval from the Federal Highway Administration for the phase-in feature of the Central Business District Tolling Program,” Cathy Sheridan, head of MTA Bridges and Tunnels, said in a statement, using the formal name for the congestion pricing program.
All three transportation departments signed off Friday on the so-called “value pricing pilot program” agreement, which authorizes the MTA to use the tolls collected on federally-funded roads — several of which exist inside the congestion zone — to fund something other than road maintenance.
The Federal Highway Administration, a part of the federal DOT, also issued a re-evaluation of the modified congestion pricing plan — which phases in a higher toll over the course of several years — and found that the plan is still within the bounds of the environmental assessment the feds green-lit last year.
The two outstanding sign-offs were the last procedural requirements that needed to be cleared if the MTA is to begin tolling motorists on Jan. 5 as planned.
“While this policy is obviously controversial, I hope New Yorkers, whatever their opinion, can recognize that this is a significant moment when we are saying that we can do things to address teh big challenges that we as a city and as a region face,” Lieber said.
“Congestion pricing says that we’re not going to just keep putting our head in the sand about the impact of congestion — we’re not going to pretend that we don’t have a limited amount of room on our streets,” he added.
Earlier this week, the MTA’s board voted 12 to 1 to approve Hochul’s modified congestion pricing plan, effectively reviving the controversial toll deigned to fund system improvements.
“This is a hopeful moment,” MTA chairman Janno Lieber said ahead of Monday’s vote. “It shows that New Yorkers — we collectively — can take on and address big challenges that we’re facing.”
The plan will start with a 40% discount over the plan approved by the MTA’s board in March. That initial plan would have charged motorists a $15 base toll to drive into Midtown or lower Manhattan — the revenue from which was to back $15 billion in bonds for the MTA’s capital.
Hochul’s new plan will start the tolls 40% lower for three years — $9 a day for most motorists — before ramping up to a full $15 toll in 2031. State officials plan to start tolling on Jan. 5, 2025.
The VPPP and the FHWA re-evaluation were the two main procedural hurdles standing between the MTA’s approval of the plan on Monday and the plan to roll out the toll in January.
Critically, they were also the two that required federal action — approvals an incoming Trump administration was widely expected to deny.

The challenges to the controversial toll are not all procedural, however, as the toll continues to face legal challenges in both New York and New Jersey federal courts.
A bevy of plaintiffs in Manhattan federal court are expected to argue in favor of a temporary injunction to stop the toll next month on December 20.