President Trump intends to revoke federal approval of New York City’s congestion pricing program, fulfilling a campaign promise to reverse the policy that tolls drivers who enter Manhattan’s busiest streets to finance repairs to mass transit.
In a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul, the president’s transportation secretary outlined Mr. Trump’s objections to the program, the first of its kind in the country, and said that federal officials would contact the state to “discuss the orderly cessation of toll operations.”
The program started on Jan. 5 and charged most drivers $9 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street, an area that includes some of the city’s most famous destinations like Times Square and the Empire State Building.
The plan aimed to discourage drivers from entering the congestion zone. It also hoped to clear pollution from Manhattan’s core while helping to raise $15 billion for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs New York City’s transit system.
But Mr. Trump has said that he would end the tolls because he claimed that they were drawing visitors and businesses away from Manhattan. Observers have speculated that he would try to withdraw federal approval for the plan or threaten to withhold federal funding.
Already, early data suggested that gridlock had lessened during program’s initial weeks as fewer drivers piled into the tolled area.
In the first week of February, weekday traffic inside the tolling zone was down 9 percent compared to the same time last year, with an average of 561,678 vehicles entering the area, down from 617,000, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the program.
And foot traffic, a measure of business activity, has improved since the toll took effect, according to the city’s Economic Development Corporation. Through Jan. 31, 35.8 million pedestrians entered major business districts in the tolling zone, nearly 5 percent more than in the same period last year.
But the toll was unpopular and had been challenged by many powerful opponents, including Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey, who wrote a letter to Mr. Trump on Jan. 20 — the day of his inauguration — urging him to stop the tolls. New Jersey had fought hard to prevent the program from taking effect, filing a lawsuit that had been widely considered to be its most formidable threat. Days before the scheduled start of congestion pricing, Judge Leo M. Gordon of the U.S. District Court in New Jersey ruled in favor of the program’s supporters, and the plan moved forward.
Ms. Hochul already stopped the plan once in June, weeks before the program was initially supposed to go into effect. She had also cited concerns about the cost of the tolls, which at the time would have charged most drivers a peak fare of $15 to enter the zone. Ms. Hochul revived the plan shortly after the November election with the reduced $9 fee.
The New York Post was the first to report the existence of the letter from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to Ms. Hochul revoking certain federal permissions necessary for the tolling program to go into effect.
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