Manhattan Trucks Face $14.40 Toll as Congestion Plan Begins
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The Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a revised congestion pricing plan for Manhattan that President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to terminate once he takes office.
The MTA board, which runs the city’s transit system and is implementing the new toll, voted Nov. 18 to begin the program. It will charge E-ZPass motorists entering south of Manhattan’s 60th Street $9 during peak hours from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays, with E-ZPass trucks paying $14.40 during those hours. Vehicles without E-ZPass would pay more.
Drivers already paying tolls on the Lincoln, Holland, Queens-Midtown or Brooklyn-Battery tunnels will receive discounts during peak times to help lower the new fee. Overnight fares will be significantly cheaper, with E-ZPass passenger cars paying $2.25 and trucks paying $3.60. Under the new plan, taxi passengers would pay 75 cents per trip, while customers riding in for-hire vehicles such as Uber and Lyft would pay $1.50.
The vote comes after Gov. Kathy Hochul abruptly halted the plan weeks before it was set to begin on June 30 and follows Trump’s win earlier this month. The president-elect opposes the initiative and earlier this year said he would terminate it the first week after returning to the White House.
Hochul last week restarted the program, which is the first of its kind in the U.S., and slashed its pricing structure by 40% to help ease costs for working families and small businesses. The $9 fee will gradually increase to the original $15 charge in 2031. Drivers are set to begin paying the toll on Jan. 5.
The MTA will borrow against the new tolling revenue to raise $15 billion to modernize a more than 100-year-old transit system. Officials expect the initiative will also curb traffic, reduce pollution in Manhattan and encourage more people to take mass-transit to get to work, school and appointments.
“Transit has to be preserved and expanded and improved or New York ain’t gonna be New York,” Janno Lieber, the MTA’s CEO, said during the board meeting. “New York couldn’t exist without it.”
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