In Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first appearance with Gov. Kathy Hochul since his inauguration, the duo were all smiles on Monday, as they celebrated the anniversary of Manhattan’s embattled congestion pricing program.
It was a stark departure from the often-strained relationship between Ms. Hochul and the former New York City mayor, Eric Adams, who never fully warmed to the tolling plan.
“We are also celebrating something that feels too rare in our politics these days, and that is the change that can come when government dares to do big things,” Mr. Mamdani said, adding that the program had been a success by any measure.
Last January, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state-controlled agency that runs the city’s mass transit system, started charging most motorists up to $9 to drive into the busiest parts of Manhattan in the first tolling program of its kind in the nation. The plan was decades in the making, and had repeatedly stalled amid fierce opposition from many commuters, residents and elected officials, especially in the surrounding New York City region.
On Monday, the elected officials were joined in Lower Manhattan by Janno Lieber, the head of the M.T.A., Michael Flynn, the new transportation commissioner, and dozens of transit advocates, including some wearing birthday hats.
But Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Hochul, who faces a re-election bid this year, stopped short of discussing any of the thornier battles likely to play out between city and state in the weeks to come. One of Mr. Mamdani’s key campaign promises was to make the city’s bus system free — a plan that would most likely require Ms. Hochul to raise taxes, which she appears reluctant to do.
In 2024, the governor paused the implementation of congestion pricing just weeks before it was expected to start, because of affordability concerns. It launched in 2025 at a reduced rate, with cameras trained on the bridges, streets and tunnels leading into Manhattan below 60th Street. The program was unpopular among the public according to some polls, and some transit experts noted that Mr. Adams and Ms. Hochul were both slow to comment on congestion pricing on its first day. Mr. Adams had supported the plan while expressing reservations about it.
A year later, traffic is down, travel speeds are up well beyond the boundaries of Manhattan, and the M.T.A. has already raised close to $550 million for a slew of public transit improvements. Retail sales and foot traffic in the zone have also increased, despite critics’ concerns that congestion pricing would harm the economy.
The tolls are scheduled to rise up to $12 in 2028, and $15 in 2031. Ms. Hochul said there were no plans to increase them sooner.
Opponents of the tolling program, including the Trump administration, have not given up on trying to stop the program, although their efforts appear to have waned. These critics have argued that the toll unfairly penalizes drivers, including commuters who do not have convenient access to mass transit outside Manhattan, and increases the cost of deliveries.
Still, the program’s future is not assured.
After the U.S. Department of Transportation threatened to withhold funding for projects in the state if the program was not stopped, a federal judge in May barred the White House from interfering with the toll. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 28.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While the courts have repeatedly ruled at least partially in support of the toll program, some opponents, including officials in New Jersey and Rockland and Orange counties in New York, have continued to pursue litigation. In recent months, several groups and their lawyers said that they were waiting to see the outcome of the M.T.A. case before proceeding with their own efforts.
Jack L. Lester, a lawyer who represents one group of city residents who sued over the program in federal court, said that they are now considering filing a new lawsuit in state court to try to compel the M.T.A. to hold public hearings on the financial burdens of the tolls on commuters, especially those on fixed incomes.
While Mr. Mamdani has supported the M.T.A. on congestion pricing, the organization has bristled at something he wants: free buses. Mr. Lieber, the head of the transit authority, has said that such a proposal should be more closely studied, in the same manner that congestion pricing was reviewed. A pilot program to make a small number of bus lines free — a plan Mr. Mamdani endorsed when he was a state assemblyman — had mixed results, with ridership increasing, but speeds remaining mostly flat.
The transit authority is in the middle of a campaign to reduce its $1-billion-a-year fare evasion problem, especially on buses, where more than 40 percent of riders skip the fare.
As congestion pricing passed its milestone on Monday, supporters celebrated the news, and felt emboldened by its success.
Ben Furnas, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, a safe-streets advocacy group, called for adding more bus and bike lanes within the congestion relief zone, increasing the tolls by up to 25 percent on the heaviest traffic days, and potentially expanding congestion pricing to other parts of the city.
“What was once an audacious dream is now proof of concept that bold choices rooted in the examples of other global cities can be rewarded,” Mr. Furnas said.
Stefanos Chen is a Times reporter covering New York City’s transit system.
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