New York’s $9 congestion toll on most drivers getting into the busiest a part of Manhattan remained in impact Sunday, regardless of an Easter deadline from the Trump administration to halt the first-in-the-nation payment.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state company overseeing the tolls, confirmed Sunday that its system of site visitors cameras continues to gather the payment assessed on most vehicles getting into the borough under Central Park.
President Donald Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, rescinded federal approval for this system in February, calling it “a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners,” and initially gave New York till March 21 to conform.
The MTA challenged Duffy’s choice in federal court docket and Duffy subsequently pushed the deadline again by a month, to April 20. The transportation division insisted it will not again off the deadline even because the court docket case performs out, saying it will “not hesitate to use every tool at our disposal” if the state did not cease the toll.
“In case there have been any doubts, MTA, State and Metropolis reaffirmed in a court docket submitting that congestion pricing is right here to remain and that the arguments Secretary Duffy made attempting to cease it have zero benefit,” John J. McCarthy, the MTA’s chief of coverage and exterior relations, mentioned Sunday.
Spokespersons for the U.S. Division of Transportation didn’t instantly reply to messages searching for remark Sunday.
The payment started Jan. 5 and is supposed to not simply scale back site visitors jams but in addition elevate 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 center 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 via the world with out the tolling scheme, in line with knowledge the company launched earlier this month.
The company has beforehand mentioned it is on observe to fulfill the $500 million in income initially projected this yr 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 massive cities around the globe, together with London and Stockholm, have comparable congestion pricing schemes.
On Thursday, a Manhattan federal choose 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 payment was authorised by federal transportation officers with out correct scrutiny and that the court docket ought to order the completion of a extra complete environmental impression examine.
