Washington Moves to Kill Congestion Pricing, But Albany Says ‘Not So Fast’
The administration of President Donald Trump has overturned the legally required federal approval for the congestion pricing program that began levying tolls on vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th Street on January 5, but the administration of New York Governor Kathy Hochul disputes that he has the authority to do so.
While this had been a campaign pledge of Mr. Trump’s throughout the 2024 presidential election, the official notice came yesterday in a letter from federal Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to Ms. Hochul. In this communication, Mr. Duffy cited concerns about “the significant burdens on the New York City residents, businesses, and area commuters (including those from New Jersey and Connecticut) who regularly use the highway network in the… tolling area,” and said, “I share the President’s concerns about the impacts to working-class Americans who now have an additional financial burden to account for in their daily lives.”
He added, “users of the highway network within the… tolling area have already financed the construction and improvement of these highways through the payment of gas taxes and other taxes. The recent imposition of [congestion pricing] upon residents, businesses, and commuters left highway users without any free highway alternative on which to travel within the relevant area. Moreover, the revenues generated under this pilot program are directed toward the transit system as opposed to the highways. I do not believe that this is a fair deal.”
Mr. Duffy argued that the program “uses a method of tolling known as ‘cordon pricing,’ under which drivers who enter Manhattan south of 60th Street are charged tolls no matter what roads they use. Unlike other forms of tolling, the cordon pricing program provides no toll-free option for many drivers who want or need to travel by vehicle in this major urbanized area.”
He also said, “the imposition of tolls under the pilot project appears to be driven primarily by the need to raise revenue for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) system as opposed to the need to reduce congestion… but the toll rate should not be driven primarily by revenue targets, particularly revenue targets that have nothing to do with the highway infrastructure.” He added, “this revenue target for MTA projects artificially drives the establishment of toll rates to the highway users rather than the price needed to reduce congestion… As a result, highway users of the Federal-aid highway network within the priced zone are burdened with a price that is set to raise certain amounts of revenue for MTA capital projects rather than a price that is necessary to have an impact on congestion.”
The Secretary of Transportation concluded, “Federal-aid infrastructure projects must be carried out in compliance with Federal law. Due to my conclusion that the Federal Highway Administration [FHWA] lacked statutory authority to approve the cordon pricing tolling, I am rescinding FHWA’s approval” of congestion pricing “under the Agreement and terminating the Agreement.”
Shortly after Mr. Duffy’s letter was delivered to Ms. Hochul, Mr. Trump posted on social media, “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”
Response was immediate from local supporters of the program. Long-time Tribeca resident Charles Komanoff, a mathematician and transit advocate, who curated the traffic spreadsheet model that New York State officials used to craft the State’s 2019 congestion pricing law, said, “Trump’s bluster is just that. Not an hour after Secretary Duffy’s letter landed in Hochul’s in-box, the MTA filed a 51-page complaint in federal court charging Duffy, USDOT and the Federal Highway Administration with usurping their statutory authority and seeking to bar them from interfering with the tolls. Trump and Duffy don’t have much of a leg to stand on. In other words, the tolls will stay. So will unjammed bridges and tunnels. Speedier deliveries. On-time buses. Calmer, more inviting streets. Fewer traffic crashes. Repairmen getting to more jobs.”
The federal lawsuit filed Wednesday afternoon by the State argues, “the Trump Administration has precipitously – and for blatantly political reasons – purported to ‘terminate’ the Program, as then-candidate Trump proclaimed he would do in his first week in office. The Administration’s efforts to summarily and unilaterally overturn the considered determinations of the political branches – federal, state, and city – are unlawful, and the Court should declare that they are null and void.”
The court filings note, “almost 1.2 million fewer vehicles entered the [central business district, or CBD] in the month of January than would be expected without the Program. Crossing times were 17 percent faster at the Lincoln Tunnel and 48 percent faster at the Holland Tunnel in January, 2025, compared to January, 2024. Trip times on the Williamsburg Bridge and Queensboro Bridge have been 30 percent faster. Drivers are saving on average 20 to 30 minutes driving into the CBD.”
In legal terms, the lawsuit argues, “neither the Agreement nor applicable law or regulations permit FHWA to unilaterally terminate the Agreement,” a reference to a compact between New York State and federal transportation officials, signed in 2019 and updated in 2024, which provided the official approval from Washington that allowed congestion pricing to move forward.
The same brief throws down a legal gauntlet, warning, “while the Trump Administration has purported to unlawfully terminate the agreement, its actions… obviously do not require [New York State] to cease operation of the Program. The status quo is that Congestion Pricing continues, and unless and until a court orders otherwise, Plaintiffs will continue to operate the Program as required by New York law.”
Local critics of congestion pricing were also vocal in their praise of the Trump Administration’s action. Battery Park City residents Elizabeth Chan and Tamara Hoffman (co-founders of Families for a Better Plan for Congestion), said, “we are pleased that steps have been taken to end congestion pricing, a program that, as our lawsuit describes, environmentally and economically burdens many New York communities, including Battery Park City. We have worked endlessly to advocate for our community and those at large.”
Tribeca resident and community leader Susan Lee, who co-founded the grassroots group, New Yorkers Against Congestion Pricing Tax (NYACPT), said, “today, the Federal Government clearly validated the arguments and advocacy of NYACPT, the coalition of residents and businesses from diverse neighborhoods around New York City, by rescinding the regressive and harmful congestion pricing toll-tax. The group initiated a lawsuit to demand an environmental impact statement from the FHWA to show the real impacts of congestion pricing on our communities and businesses. NYACPT asserted that New York State law requires a review assessing the economic impacts on small businesses and job retention. The MTA must immediately shut down its toll-tax readers.”
Another NYCAPT founder, William O’Reilly, added, “President Trump was right to stop this new tax, and, frankly, Governor Hochul should be relieved he did. The MTA will now be forced to look itself in the mirror and get its house in order, something that’s been overdue for decades. The MTA’s problem isn’t revenue, it’s corruption and waste. There is zero reason for New Yorkers to fork over another dime. What’s needed instead is a real MTA audit and some brave political leadership.”
Jihye Song, speaking for two Lower Manhattan organizations – the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side, as well as Youth Against Displacement – said, “it is shameful that Governor Hochul has pushed for policy so detrimental to working people and small businesses that even Trump can take a better position than her. YAD has been conducting a survey of over a hundred small businesses in Chinatown and the Lower East Side and the overwhelming response is clear – businesses are already struggling to stay open due to skyrocketing rents and congestion pricing is causing an immediate and negative financial strain on them. We call on Hochul to repeal congestion pricing and stop displacing our communities!”