New York’s congestion pricing plan raised $48.6 million in tolls during its first month, a strong start for the program that exceeded expectations and kept it on track to raise billions of dollars for the region’s decaying mass transit system.
The revenue figures, expected to be released publicly on Monday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, are the latest sign that the tolling plan is working, even as President Trump has moved to kill the program.
The M.T.A., which oversees the plan, expected to collect an average of $40 million a month in the program’s first phase.
The first month’s revenue will pay for $11 million of expenses related to setting up tolling cameras and other parts of the system, and environmental projects to address concerns about urban pollution that might arise because of changing traffic patterns. The remaining $37.5 million can be applied toward financing a slew of major transit repair projects, said Jai Patel, the M.T.A.’s co-chief financial officer.
“We feel really good about that,” Ms. Patel said, adding that revenue from the toll, which started on Jan. 5, was achieved in less than a full month.
Yet, the program faces an uncertain future. President Trump, who has argued that the toll plan would hurt local business, ordered the Department of Transportation last week to revoke its federal authorization. The M.T.A. immediately filed a lawsuit to stop the interference, and vowed to keep collecting tolls.
The revenue figures could further strengthen the agency’s case to continue congestion pricing. There has already been a substantial reduction in the number of vehicles entering the congestion zone, which runs from 60th Street in Manhattan to the southern tip of the borough. And travel has sped up along several heavily clogged roadways, bridges and tunnels throughout the region.
On Friday, Gov. Kathy Hochul met with President Trump to defend the toll, armed with a 22-slide presentation showing that, in addition to the traffic benefits, commercial office leasing, Broadway attendance, and foot traffic in the tolling zone have climbed. Her presentation also cited a recent survey showing that a majority of frequent drivers into Manhattan support the toll.
The tolling plan charges most passenger cars $9 a day to enter some of the most congested roads in Manhattan at peak traffic times. The tolls are expected to increase for most drivers to $12 in 2028, and to $15 in 2031.
There was some concern that the program might not reach its funding goals, after the toll was reduced to $9 for most drivers, down from an initial $15.
Of the $48 million billed to drivers in January, about 85 percent was charged to passenger cars, Ms. Patel said, while the rest was to commercial trucks. Nearly a fifth of the tolls, $10 million, was billed to taxis and for-hire vehicles, which are charged a much smaller per-trip fee that passengers pay. The M.T.A. did not say how much of the revenue has been collected, but noted that a majority of drivers entering the congestion zone use E-ZPass, which deducts the toll automatically.
M.T.A. officials are counting on the toll revenue to help generate $15 billion for crucial transit repairs and upgrades. Those include modernizing subway signals, some of which were installed during the Depression era; making stations more accessible for riders with disabilities; and extending the Second Avenue subway line to East Harlem.
The tolls will not pay for the transit upgrades directly. The M.T.A. will use the congestion pricing revenue to borrow significantly more money through municipal bonds, a common practice by governments to fund major projects.
So far, the authority has issued $500 million in short-term notes, backed by the toll and other M.T.A. revenue, to pay for the capital projects.
Work is underway to revive a delayed project replacing subway signals on a stretch of the A and C lines in Brooklyn, and to buy several new locomotives for commuter rail.
Congestion pricing was approved in 2019 by state lawmakers after more than six decades of efforts to bring it to New York streets. When the program began in January, it became the nation’s first, following similar programs in London, Stockholm and Singapore.
But the program has been assailed by critics who say that it punishes drivers from the boroughs and suburbs outside Manhattan who have limited and unreliable transit options, and shifts traffic and pollution to other parts of the city and region. They have called the program a money grab by a transit agency with a troubled financial history.
In the weeks leading up to its start, the program survived multiple legal challenges from opponents, including the State of New Jersey.
Ms. Hochul abruptly paused the program in June, just weeks before its scheduled start, over concerns that the toll would impede the city’s recovery. She brought back the program shortly after the November elections, with a 40 percent reduction in the tolls, down to $9 from $15 for passenger vehicles. Fees vary for other types of vehicles, including trucks and buses, and steep discounts are offered overnight, when there is less traffic.
If President Trump is successful in ending the toll, projects worth billions of dollars could be mothballed, and the delays would compound the cost to fix the problems in the future, transit experts said. The M.T.A. is seeking $68 billion for its next five-year capital plan, the authority’s largest ever, and funding has been identified for only about half.
Even if the toll continues, a protracted legal fight with the federal government could scare away investors, said Ana Champeny, the vice president for research at the Citizens Budget Commission, a civic watchdog group.
“The market may have a different take on how risky they consider congestion pricing now,” she said, noting that it is highly unusual for the federal government to try to renege on such an agreement.
Kurt Forsgren, the managing director of U.S. public finance at S&P Global Ratings, a major credit ratings agency, said it was too early to tell how the legal dispute would play out. However, further confusion could make it more expensive for the M.T.A. to borrow money for necessary projects, and those costs could be passed onto taxpayers, he added.
“Everyone’s watching to see what will happen,” he said.
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
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