New York’s plan to charge most drivers $9 to enter Manhattan’s congested business districts cleared a crucial hurdle on Friday when a federal judge denied New Jersey’s emergency request to stop the new tolling program before it starts.
New York officials said they intended to move ahead with the long-planned and much-debated congestion pricing program beginning on Sunday.
But a lawyer for New Jersey indicated on Friday evening that he intended to try to appeal the judge’s ruling before Sunday.
“We respectfully disagree with the trial court’s decision not to halt New York’s congestion pricing program before it goes into effect on Sunday,” said Randy Mastro, the lawyer. “We will continue to fight for the people of New Jersey by seeking emergency relief from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.”
Similar tolling systems are used in London, Stockholm and Singapore to reduce traffic and climate-warming vehicle emissions and to generate revenue. But New York’s program would be the first of its kind in the United States, and it has been the source of at least 10 legal challenges and subjected to repeated delays, most recently by the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul.
In June, Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, abruptly halted the tolling program’s scheduled start. She resurrected the plan soon after the November elections, but cut the fee for most vehicles to $9 from $15.
New Jersey’s lawsuit is considered the most formidable obstacle to enacting the new tolls before President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has vowed to kill the program, takes office on Jan. 20.
As New York raced to implement the program before President Biden left office, Ms. Hochul acknowledged that she had offered New Jersey officials a “generous” financial settlement in exchange for dropping the lawsuit.
The settlement talks included discussions with New Jersey’s governor, Philip D. Murphy, who refused the offers, according to several people familiar with the confidential negotiations.
However, the federal judge overseeing the case, Leo M. Gordon, largely solved Ms. Hochul’s problem when he ruled on Monday that New Jersey’s claim was not strong enough for him to quash the program altogether.
Judge Gordon did order federal officials who first signed off on the tolling program in 2023 to provide additional information about ways to blunt the potential environmental risks to communities nearest New Jersey’s well-traveled Hudson River tunnel and bridge crossings.
New Jersey officials interpreted Judge Gordon’s request for additional action as a partial win, and late on New Year’s Eve they asked him to block the start of the program at least until the extra analysis was completed.
On Friday, after a hearing in Newark, Judge Gordon refused.
The hearing ran for more than two hours. The judge asked a series of pointed legal questions, quizzing lawyers for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the federal government and the State of New Jersey on whether his request for more information about environmental remedies automatically required a delayed start to the tolling program.
Mr. Mastro, the lawyer representing New Jersey, argued that it did; lawyers for the M.T.A. and the federal government said there was no legal precedent requiring a halt to the Sunday start.
Dozens of reporters and environmental activists filled the fourth-floor courtroom as the discussion grew animated.
“That is an outrage and you need to stop it now,” Mr. Mastro said about the potential for added pollution in Bergen County, near the George Washington Bridge.
A lawyer for the Department of Justice, Gregory Cummins, said flatly that “the state is wrong on the law and wrong on the facts.”
At one point, when Mr. Mastro raised his hand to make a point after his time had expired, Judge Gordon reprimanded him swiftly.
“No,” Judge Gordon said. “You had your bite of the apple. No.”
Beginning Sunday, most motorists who enter Manhattan south of 60th Street during peak travel hours will be charged a $9 fee. The new tolls are expected to help generate $15 billion to pay for essential repairs and upgrades to the city’s mass transit system and to improve public transportation in the New York suburbs.
Legal challenges are likely to continue, and it is possible for a federal court to halt the program even after it starts.
But supporters of the congestion pricing plan said they were encouraged by the timeline set Monday by Judge Gordon, who ordered the Federal Highway Administration to produce the information he requested by Jan. 17 — three days before the inauguration.
Once provided, there are fewer ways in which the program might be scuttled by the incoming presidential administration.
“It’s time for people to stop debating whether this is going to happen and for leaders on both sides of the Hudson to make sure that it’s effectively implemented,” said Justin Backal Balik of Evergreen Action, a national environmental advocacy group.
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