Even though the Congestion Pricing toll now being collected when vehicles enter the CRZ (Congestion Relief Zone) south of 60th Street in Manhattan is a local initiative, few topics on the transportation scene have resulted in more attention or controversy. Through 2024 and into 2025, this writer contributed 25 articles on the subject, more than the beginning-to-end coverage of the four-year fight over Amtrak’s new Mardi Gras Service trains between New Orleans and Mobile, which I dubbed the “Second Battle of Mobile.”
The toll has two purposes: to reduce congestion due to the number of vehicles on the streets in the busiest part of the City, and to use the revenue from the toll to help finance the capital programs for the City’s subway/elevated and bus systems (80%) and the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North (10% each). The controversy over the toll spawned no fewer than twelve litigations in both Federal and State courts on both sides of the Hudson River, some of which are still ongoing. Just the same, the legal efforts to prevent the toll have failed (so far, at least), and it went into effect on January 5, 2025. Current accounts show that it has succeeded in reducing street traffic, and it has raised money for transit.
The tolling zone is all of Manhattan south of 60th Street, except for the highway along the perimeter of that part of the island. That includes the business center in Midtown, the historic business center around Wall Street, and everything in-between. The base toll is $9.00 for vehicles entering the zone between 5:00 AM and 9:00 PM on weekdays and starting at 9:00 AM on weekends. The night rate is $2.25. Most buses, vehicles that transport persons with disabilities (including paratransit vehicles), and other City-owned vehicles are exempt, and tolls are capped for low-income New Yorkers. Rates for trucks and other buses are higher, and there is a credit for motorists coming into the City from New Jersey.
Successful Results
On Jan. 8, Railway Age Senior Editor Carolina Worrell reported on the first year of the toll: “The New York MTA on Jan. 5 announced that on its one-year anniversary, New York City’s first-in-the-nation congestion pricing program has been ‘a transformational success, reducing traffic, improving quality of life and supporting billions in transit upgrades.’” The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a state agency whose purview includes New York City Transit and the local railroads operating in the state. She also reported: “In its first year, congestion pricing resulted in 27 million fewer vehicles entering the Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ) of Manhattan south of 60th Street, an 11% reduction in traffic, according to the MTA. Reduced gridlock has improved commute times across the region, especially at crossings into the CRZ, with some drivers saving as much as 15 minutes each way. Congestion pricing, the agency says, has reduced emissions, made streets safer, improved quality of life and has generated more than $550 million in net revenue in its first year, allowing the MTA to proceed with $15 billion in transit improvement projects. Governor Hochul said she has also stood strong to defend congestion pricing from unlawful federal efforts to terminate the program. One year in, congestion pricing is working and it is legal.”
The original plan called for a $15.00 base toll but, after cancelling the toll, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul instead implemented the $9.00 rate, which will rise to $12.00 two years from now and to the originally planned $15.00 in five years. The original revenue target had been to raise $1 billion annually for the Capital Program (none of the toll revenue will be spent on transit or railroad operations), but the reduced toll seems to be meeting its current target of $500 million per year. Worrell reported that it realized $518 million as of November, and projections at that time called for a total of $550 million.
Projects that are slated to benefit from the toll revenue include accessibility improvements, signal upgrades to CBTC (communications-based train control), new railcars and buses, state-of-good-repair projects, and Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway, which now only includes four stops on the Upper East Side that opened for service eight years ago. The upgrade now planned will extend the line three more stops to 125th Street and Lexington Avenue, to connect with the Metro-North station there. In her State of the State address, Hochul proposed extending the line along 125th Street in Harlem and then northward on the West Side and shelving the century-old plan to extend the Second Avenue Subway to Lower Manhattan.
Other Positive Reports
The MTA website is promoting the toll and its benefits elsewhere. An MTA-sponsored companion site sports a section headlined “Congeston Relief is Unlocking a Better New York”: “It’s time for a city that moves faster, breathes easier, and works better. The program is reducing traffic in the Congestion Relief Zone, transforming the area from gridlocked to unlocked. Less traffic means cleaner air, safer streets, and better transit.” A link marked “Learn more” goes into greater detail, with the headline “New York Needs the Congestion Relief Zone”, and subheads”: “Excess traffic is bad for businesses, residents, and visitors, Congestion is only getting worse, New York’s extensive transit network needs investment, and everyone benefits from congestion relief.” Among the benefits that the MTA is touting are 60,000 fewer vehicles entering the congestion relief zone every day, 4% more pedestrians walking, a 70% drop in excessive honking of vehicle horns, and $48 million generated during the first month of collection. The site contains a link to the 100-page “First Evaluation Report,” issued earlier in January (download below). That report, along with other reports and applicable statutory provisions can be found on the “Metrics” section of the site.
Ethan Stark-Miller reported for AM New York, a free daily paper that concentrates its coverage on events in the City, on Jan. 5: “Gov. Kathy Hochul … celebrated its success … alongside MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber and newly-minted Mayor Zohran Mamdani. ‘The results are extraordinary, beyond what we could have expected,’ Hochul said. ‘And to any naysayers out there, tell me who they are, and we’ll have a conversation. I’ll meet you at my local diner,’ she added, referencing the restaurants she said drove her decision to pause the program’s start in 2024.” Regarding benefits from the program, Stark-Miller reported: “Those include a 4% increase in car speeds on weekdays, a 2.3% increase in bus speeds, a 22% drop in air pollution, and 17% less noise complaints to the city’s 311 hotline within the CBD. Furthermore, the program has yielded 23% faster vehicle speeds on crossings into Manhattan, a 6.3% increase in sales tax revenue, and two times more private sector job growth vs. the national average. Subway ridership, in particular, also grew during congestion pricing’s first year. The MTA reported 1.3 billion trips in the system in 2025, up roughly 7% from 2024, representing about 85% of the pre-pandemic ridership high.”
A motorists’ website praised the toll, calling it “a quiet success. When New York City flipped the switch on congestion pricing in early 2025, the backlash was immediate and loud. Critics warned it would punish drivers, hurt businesses, and simply push traffic into surrounding neighborhoods. One year later, the data tells a very different story. By most measurable standards, New York City’s congestion toll is working—and working better than many expected.”
Samantha Liebman quoted Hochel saying something else in her report on NY1, a local cable news outlet, striking what she described as a “defiant tone”: “Everybody who told me, from the President on down, ‘You’re killing New York City. Nobody’s going to come, you know, traffic’s down because the place is empty.’ I was like, ‘Seriously, have you been here lately?’” Liebman’s report also quoted the City’s new mayor: “‘What this program has done is commit funding to the very needs that have been put off for years, if not decades,’ Mayor Zohran Mamdani said. ‘And that is funding—those are investments that can transform the day-to-day realities of a New Yorker.’” But a newly implemented fare hike, although modest (from $2.90 to $3.00 for the base fare), dampened some of the preference for transit that the toll was designed to promote, as Liebman reported: “‘I was driving, and they were killing me with the congestion pricing,’ said one straphanger who switched to mass transit because of the toll. ‘So, they forced you to go do this. And now they increase this. It’s too much.’”
There are also reactions from related industries. A Jan. 9 editorial in Crain’s New York Business bore the headline “Congestion pricing at a year makes the case for staying the course.”
Another came from Alpha Moving & Storage, a moving company, which posted tips for people who are planning to move on how to minimize their toll payments, since tolls for trucks are higher than for conventional automobiles): “NYC congestion pricing starts affecting moves below 60th Street in Manhattan come 2026, and it’s set to shake up how moving trucks roll through the city. One extra trip or a missed timing window can add unexpected costs and headaches on your big day. This guide breaks down what changes to expect, which fees could pop up beyond your mover’s quote, and smart ways to keep your move smooth without breaking the bank. For more background on the program’s impact, check out the NYC government’s initiatives to manage truck traffic.” One of its subheads was “How Congestion Pricing Changes Moving Day Logistics.”
John Connolly reported in the Bergen Record on Jan. 12 about changes on the New Jersey side: “An analysis done by Stanford, Yale and Google researchers found that congestion pricing has resulted in less traffic across the Hudson[River] in Bergen and Hudson counties, too. Average speeds increased by 4.7% on roads connecting to New York City, and trips into the city were 10.5% faster. Trips out were 9.7% faster, according to the study, which was based on traffic data from January 2024 through June 2025.” Connolly also mentioned this comment from Gov. Hochul: “The governor, while taking a ‘No Kings’ jab at [POTUS 47], said that ‘the results are extraordinary, beyond what we could have expected.’”
Detractor-in-Chief, SECDOT Duffy Won’t Keep Quiet
POTUS 47 has been one of the toll’s most-vocal detractors since he returned to office last year, and he is still complaining about it, according to a Jan. 12 report by Emily Goodin in the New York Post: “His latest broadside at the controversial program comes as a federal court prepares to hear arguments on whether his Administration can kill it off once and for all.” She also reported that he had called the program a “disaster” and called on the City to end it “immediately.” She added: “His Administration has tried—and failed—to end the toll program, even threatening to withhold federal funding and approvals for New York projects if it doesn’t die a quick death. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is leading the charge against it, setting multiple deadlines for the city to nix it.”
Duffy visited Penn Station New York on Aug. 28 after a ride from Washington, D.C. on the inaugural run of the Next Gen Acela equipment now running on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (NEC). It was a dual-event day, with the ceremonial train ride and a press conference announcing the return of Andy Byford, who many New Yorkers call “Train Daddy,” for his efforts to improve the city’s transit until he resigned after he had had enough of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s meddling. Byford is now supervising the redevelopment of Penn Station for Amtrak. During the event, Duffy departed from the subject of the day to complain about Congestion Pricing. In our story from August 29, headlined Byford Pushes PSNY as Duffy Trashes Congestion Toll, I reported: “Duffy also addressed one of his political pet peeves: the Congestion Pricing program that is still in operation in the southern portion of Manhattan—despite his nonsensical objections. While he acknowledged that litigation is ongoing, he said, ‘To drive a car, you shouldn’t have to be elite. You shouldn’t have to be wealthy. We don’t think that elites are the only ones who can afford to drive in the City. I think the streets should be open to everybody, not just those who can afford to pay the congestion pricing. Roads should be free.’ He did not call for transit to be free, nor did he mention that motorists could take transit for one-third of the cost of the congestion toll, which is currently $9.00 during the day and early evening and $2.25 at night.”
Litigation Winding Down
For much of 2024 and into 2025, I have reported extensively on the many court cases, mostly filed against the Congestion Pricing toll, along with a few that called for it to be implemented, despite the opposition. Many of the named plaintiffs were elected officials or other public figures who represented various constituencies outside Manhattan, the only place where there was strong political support for the toll. Opposition came from the “outer boroughs” of the City, Long Island, Westchester and other suburban areas north of the City, and New Jersey. Former New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and many elected officials (both Democrats and Republicans, exhibiting a rare moment of unity) brought their case in Federal Court for the District of New Jersey. Many of the New York cases were consolidated and heard in the Southern District of New York, which includes Manhattan. We reported on those cases extensively, including a last-ditch attempt by New Jersey to appeal Judge Leo M. Gordon’s ruling that allowed the toll to proceed, and the opinions from judges on the New York side, most notably Lewis J. Limon.
While none of the decisions that were rendered in 2024 or at the very beginning of last year stopped the toll, not all the cases have been closed. On May 7, 2025, the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) published a report by land use and environmental law scholar Christine Billy that bore the headline Congestion Pricing in the Courts, which updated the status of the Congestion Pricing cases as of April 30: “The case of congestion pricing is generative of many complex legal and policy questions, and there is a continuing need for lawyers, legal commentators, and voices from multiple disciplines and perspectives to weigh in. Taking a narrower focus, this article will discuss the role of the National Environmental Policy Act in the latest case brought by the MTA, and then explore what is at stake in the present moment. Over the next year, New York will demonstrate whether the first congestion pricing program in the country can be successful or learn what happens when the federal government forces state promises to be broken.” In her article, Billy summarized the litigation history and issues in the cases for the legal community, similarly to my reporting for the rail transportation community.
The Regional Plan Association (RPA) posted a follow-up report on 12 cases that had been filed on the Congestion Pricing toll and issues surrounding it, current to Sept. 11, 2025 and reported by Sam Bowden Akbari: “Significantly, while a number of these cases are still pending, not a single court has ordered the MTA to halt implementation of the congestion pricing program, which has now been in effect for more than nine months.”
Most of the cases have been decided in favor of the decisions by federal highway officials in the Biden Administration to approve the tolls, despite the opposition from elected officials and other plaintiffs to the tolling plan, or against the efforts of Duffy’s USDOT under POTUS 47 to discontinue the tolls.
RPA reported that in MTA v. Duffy, filed on Feb. 19, 2025, Judge Liman had issued a preliminary injunction as requested by the MTA, preventing USDOT from withholding federal transportation funds from New York, but Summary Judgement motions were still pending. To obtain an injunction, a plaintiff must demonstrate irreparable harm if the requested relief is not granted, the likelihood of success on the merits, that the balance of equities favors the relief, and that it would advance public policy. Parties request Summary Judgment when they claim that all the facts that a judge needs to decide the case are already on the record, and that there is no need for a trial to prove any additional facts.
On the anniversary date of the toll, Jan. 5, Dave Colon of NYC Streetsblog reported what’s left of the cases that had not yet been closed. There appear to be only a few loose ends remaining. Judge Liman presided over many of the cases, which were heard in the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. The biggest is Metropolitan Transportation Authority v. Duffy, 1.25-cv-01413. On Dec. 23, Liman scheduled two hours of oral argument for Jan. 28 on motions for summary judgment. Liman had granted a preliminary injunction against USDOT’s efforts to stop the tolling program, and in favor of the MTA on May 28, 2025.
In Trucking Association of New York v. Metropolitan Transportation Association et al., No. 2024-cv-04111, filed May 30, 2024, the trucking association (TANY) complained, in essence, that the tolls set for trucks were excessive, and that federal law pre-empted state authority. Assemblyman Jake Blumenkrantz, a Republican from Oyster Bay (the LIRR has a branch that ends there) filed his case on March 3, 2025. He alleged: “The TMA [Traffic Mobility Act] was nothing more than a legislative mandate to fleece drivers, disguised as a solution to a problem exacerbated by the State’s own incompetence” (Complaint, at ¶2). He also alleged: “On the very day that Plaintiff Assemblyman Jake Blumenkrantz traveled to Central Park to commemorate the 500th day since the Oct. 7t Hamas attacks [in Isreal]—an event honoring victims—he was forced to pay an illegal toll. This was not merely a routine drive, but a journey of solemn remembrance, support, and community solidarity, tainted by an unjustified financial burden” (Id. at ¶96). Blumenkrantz’s counts and arguments appear similar to those made by Duffy and other opponents of the tolling program, in Town of Hempstead et al. v. Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Authority, et al., with similar arguments to a case dismissed by Judge Cathy Seibel in White Plains, according to Colon. He also reports that the case is now in the Eastern District of New York, but that State authorities are asking for a change of venue.
Finally, on the New Jersey side, State of New Jersey v. USDOT, 2:23-cv-08335, before Judge Leo M. Gordon in the District of New Jersey, is not over yet. That case presented a cliffhanger one year ago, including a last-minute appeal to the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, after Gordon ruled in favor of implementing the toll. There are still issues concerning spillover traffic caused by the toll and the effectiveness of the toll itself, now that it has been reduced from the $15.00 base toll that was originally proposed to $9.00. Those issues have yet to be resolved.
In essence, the flurry of litigation has slowed down to a trickle. It is understandable that any major change in policy, like imposing the Congestion Pricing toll, would be met with strong opposition, which includes litigations filed by a variety of plaintiffs who feel aggrieved by the change in policy. Still, the toll has been collected for more than a year now, and the court cases might soon be coming to an end. While it does not appear likely that a judge will stop the tolling program, anything can happen in litigation. It also does not seem that any of these cases would be likely to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, but anything can happen there, too. Maybe the injunctions from last year will become permanent and other issues resolve, so the toll will keep reducing congestion on the streets and helping transit.
The Future
On Jan. 2, the RPA summarized the results that the program had brought to the lower half of Manhattan, and to the City generally. Several people, including longtime professional engineer, traffic official and consultant Sam Schwartz (“Gridlock Sam”, pictured) contributed to the RPA’s article. The results are presented as a list, and most are positive, although some are more positive than others.
Andrew Albert, Chair of the Transit Riders’ Council in the City, a rider-representative at the MTA Board, and Vice-Chair of the Rail Users’ Network (RUN), recited a lengthy litany of the benefits that the toll has brought to the City. He told Railway Age: “It’s a success in just about every way you can imagine. One year later, traffic is down 11%, which is 27 million fewer vehicles entering the congestion zone, crossing speeds to get across town are up by as much as 51%, transit ridership is up 7%, pollution is down 22%, crashes are down 7%, traffic injuries are down 8%, and the Manhattan economy is thriving. It has been the best year for office leasing in 23 years, foot traffic is up by 6%, sales tax receipts are up by more 6%, and it was the best Broadway theater season in years, the second-highest in Broadway history. All the predictions of doom, that nobody would come into the City any more, were reversed. It’s brought in even more than the predicted money for the MTA’s capital program.” Regarding New Jersey, Albert said: “When did you ever remember listening to traffic reports say that wait times for the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels are 15 minutes, but that’s what you hear these days.”
I visited the tolling zone on several occasions during the past year, often taking the #20 and other buses between Penn Station (after arriving on an NJ Transit train) and destinations such as the Upper West Side, the Village, the Lower East Side, Chinatown, and the Financial District. Sometimes the buses got stuck in traffic much as they had before the toll was implemented, but those instances were relatively rare. More often, there were fewer vehicles on the streets, so the buses moved faster and were more likely to stay on schedule. Buses on Manhattan’s streets are often slow, but they’re not as slow when fewer other vehicles of all types clog the streets and get in their way. That’s a good result for riders, for drivers (for buses and private vehicles) and, apparently, for everybody else, too.
After 25 articles a year or two ago and this long update, it will be good to put this topic in the rear-view mirror, so to speak. It has been an interesting year riding buses in Manhattan and feeling them move faster than they had before, most of the time, anyway. Still, the subways are faster, and it will be good to ride all over the City on them again.
