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7/7/2025
Rail News: Passenger Rail
MTA: Congestion toll working as predicted

New York City's six-month-old congestion pricing program is on track to meet projected goals in reducing traffic and raising revenue to help fund transit services, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced last week.
Activated Jan. 5, the country's first urban congestion pricing program was created to reduce traffic gridlock in Manhattan's designated congestion relief zone below 60th Street by charging a toll to drivers who enter the zone. Toll revenue will be used to fund improvements to the MTA's system, including New York City Transit subway, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad. So far, revenue is on track to reach the forecasted $500 million in 2025, MTA officials said in a press release
“Six months in, it’s clear: Congestion pricing has been a huge success, making life in New York better,” Hochul said.
Since implementation, the number of automotive vehicles entering the congestion relief zone is down 11%, or 67,000 vehicles per day. Traffic delays in the congestion relief zone are down 25%. The program has also reduced traffic delays in the broader region, including a 10% decrease in traffic delays in the Bronx and 14% in parts of Bergen County, New Jersey.
The congestion pricing program remains in place despite legal challenges from the Trump administration. Shortly after President Donald Trump took office, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy informed Hochul he was terminating the toll program, and later threatened to withhold federal funding for highway projects. Hochul and the MTA took the administration to court over the matter, and Judge Lewis Liman of the Southern District of New York on May 27 temporarily blocked Duffy from withholding federal funding.
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