Feds give MTA deadline to kill NYC congestion pricing tolls

The head of the Federal Highway Administration last week said the MTA must ensure its congestion pricing program ends by March 21, a directive officials in New York vowed to ignore.

The order, which was issued in a letter sent by the FHWA’s Executive Director Gloria Shepherd last Thursday, came a day after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced he’d revoked federal approval for the tolls, which have charged drivers a $9 daytime fee to enter Manhattan below 60th Street since Jan. 5. President Donald Trump, who promised to kill the program during his campaign last year, proclaimed “LONG LIVE THE KING” on social media to celebrate Duffy’s order, posting an illustration of himself wearing a crown.

The MTA shared a copy of Shepherd’s letter on Wednesday, which directs the agency as well as the city and state transportation departments to join the feds “to discuss the orderly cessation of toll operations under” congestion pricing.

Shepherd, who was appointed to her federal agency’s top job in 2022 under then-President Joe Biden, wrote she gave the MTA a month to kill the program in order to provide time “to terminate operations of this pilot project in an orderly manner.”

The FHWA approved the tolls last year through a federal pilot program that allows the MTA to charge tolls on federally subsidized roads.

The MTA sued the U.S. Department of Transportation less than an hour after Duffy issued his order, arguing the feds lacked legal authority to revoke approval for congestion pricing. The lawsuit argues the program has already proven successful both in reducing congestion zone and raising money for critical transit infrastructure improvements.

During a news conference, MTA Chair Janno Lieber said the congestion tolling cameras would stay on until a federal judge orders otherwise.

“The important thing is there’s going to be no cessation unless a court orders it and we now have a matter pending in front of the Southern District [of New York],” said Lieber. “We’re very very optimistic about where this next one is headed.”

During a board meeting on Wednesday, Lieber said the program has already improved life in the city.

“This is like when we prohibited smoking in bars and a few weeks after it was instituted, all the naysayers were admitting ‘Oh this is gonna work after all,” he said. “It was quickly recognized as a big win for the public and so is congestion pricing. And I’ll say again: we’re not going back.”