The Trump administration has issued New York one more deadline to wrap up its first-in-the-nation congestion pricing program in Manhattan or undergo “serious consequences,” based on a brand new letter shared Monday.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote to Gov. Kathy Hochul with a revised deadline of Could 21 to stop toll assortment efforts on automobiles coming into Manhattan’s Central Enterprise District. The letter comes simply in the future after Hochul and the MTA ignored an April 20 deadline — which got here after an earlier March 21 deadline to finish this system.
In his letter, Duffy guarantees to chop off federal funding and sure approvals on highway tasks in Manhattan if Hochul chooses to not flip off the tolling program or if she fails to show this system’s compliance with federal legislation.
“We are giving New York one last chance to turn back or prove their actions are not illegal,” Duffy warned Monday in a press release.
“The federal authorities sends billions to New York—however we gained’t foot the invoice if Governor Hochul continues to implement an unlawful toll to backfill the funds of New York’s failing transit system,” the secretary additionally mentioned.
The legality of town’s tolling program continues to play out in courtroom, however up to now, judges have frequently sided with the state and the MTA.
Hochul provided a succinct response to Duffy’s letter: “I repeat: congestion pricing is authorized — and it’s working. Visitors is down, enterprise is up and the cameras are staying on.”
The top of the MTA echoed Hochul’s assertion, confirming that the cameras would keep on till ordered to do in any other case by a courtroom.
“We’ve got acquired Secretary Duffy’s letter setting one more new deadline and are evaluating MTA’s authorized choices, provided that the authorized points raised within the letter are already appropriately earlier than a federal decide,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber mentioned in a press release.
The price started Jan. 5 and is supposed to not simply scale back visitors jams but additionally increase billions of {dollars} in income for New York’s subways, commuter trains and public buses.
However Trump, whose namesake Trump Tower and different properties are throughout the congestion zone, had vowed to kill the plan as quickly as he took workplace.
The transit authority, in the meantime, has continued to tout the advantages of the tolling program, saying fewer automobiles are actually coming into the guts of Manhattan.
Round 560,000 automobiles per day entered the congestion zone in March, a 13% drop from the roughly 640,000 the MTA tasks would have pushed by means of the world with out the tolling scheme, based on knowledge the company launched earlier this month.
The company has beforehand mentioned it is on monitor to satisfy the $500 million in income initially projected this 12 months from congestion pricing.
The toll varies relying on sort of car and time of day and comes on high of tolls drivers already pay to cross bridges and tunnels into Manhattan.
Different huge cities all over the world, together with London and Stockholm, have related congestion pricing schemes.
On Thursday, a Manhattan federal decide dismissed a sequence of lawsuits introduced by the native trucking trade and different native teams difficult the toll.
Most of these lawsuits had argued the price was accepted by federal transportation officers with out correct scrutiny and that the courtroom ought to order the completion of a extra complete environmental impression research.
