New York City’s wildly unpopular congestion pricing policy is on the brink of outright elimination after the Trump Administration announced it is pulling its approval of the “backwards and unfair” toll.

The toll, which took effect on January 5, charges drivers a toll to enter certain parts of Manhattan. Also known as the Central Business District Tolling Program, Passenger vehicles have been charged up to $9 to drive at peak hours, while large trucks and tour busses have been forced to pay up to $21.

The Federal Highway Administration and the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) entered into an agreement on Nov. 21, 2024, approving the toll under the Value Pricing Pilot Program (VPPP). Approved by Congress in 1991, VPPP is an “exception to the general rule prohibiting tolling on highways as a pilot to test congestion reduction techniques,” according to a report from Fox News. New York is one of 15 states authorized to implement the program.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, Director of State Operations Kathryn Garcia, MTA Chair & CEO Janno Lieber, and Maimonides Medical Center President & CEO Kenneth Gibbs hold media availability after they visited victims of earlier subway shooting at Maimonides Medical Center on Tuesday, Apr. 12, 2022.
(Marc A. Hermann / MTA)

On Wednesday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy penned a letter to New York Governor Kathy Hochul informing her that the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) approval of the pilot program was “not authorized by law.”

“New York State’s congestion pricing plan is a slap in the face to working-class Americans and small business owners,” Duffy told Fox News. “Commuters using the highway system to enter New York City have already financed the construction and improvement of these highways through the payment of gas taxes and other taxes. But now the toll program leaves drivers without any free highway alternative, and instead, takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system and not highways. It’s backwards and unfair.”

“The program also hurts small businesses in New York that rely on customers from New Jersey and Connecticut,” he added. “Finally, it impedes the flow of commerce into New York by increasing costs for trucks, which in turn could make goods more expensive for consumer[s]. Every American should be able to access New York City regardless of their economic means. It shouldn’t be reserved for an elite few.”

In his letter to Hochul, Duffy laid out steps and legal avenues the administration will be taking in order to end the controversial program.

Duffy explained that the toll — which extends to vehicles that enter Manhattan south of 60th Street — charges drivers regardless of which roads they use and provides no toll-free option for many drivers who want or need to travel by vehicle in this major urbanized area.” The transportation secretary went on to note that “no statute contemplates cordon pricing in a situation where tolls are inescapable.”

Elsewhere in the letter, Duffy said the “imposition of tolls under the CBDTP pilot project appears to be driven primarily by the need to raise revenue for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) system as opposed to the need to reduce congestion.”

“I share the President’s concerns about the impacts to working class Americans who now have an additional financial burden to account for in their daily lives,” the letter continued.

Duffy is sworn in as transportation secretary by Vice President J.D. Vance

The letter went on to cite concerns from New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, and New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner Fran O’Connor, before stating that the Transportation Department reviewed the tolling authority granted under VPPP to the CBDTP pilot project for compliance under federal law and “concluded that the scope of this pilot project as approved exceeds the authority authorized by Congress under VPPP.”

“To be sure, the termination of the program may deprive the transit system of funding, but any reliance on that funding stream was not reasonable given that FHWA’s approval was not authorized by law,” Duffy wrote. “The FHWA will contact NYSDOT and its project sponsors to discuss the orderly cessation of toll operations under this terminated pilot project.”

The decision to axe New York’s congestion pricing program was met with approval across party lines. New York City councilman Bob Holden, a Democrat representing Queens, said the president “kept his promise to New Yorkers by stopping the unfair congestion pricing scheme, a scam tax that was unjust from the very start.”

“This is a major victory for working- and middle-class families who were forced to shoulder another financial burden just to navigate their own city,” Holden said. “New Yorkers deserve real solutions to traffic and transit issues—not another cash grab disguised as policy.”

President Trump also commented on the issue in a Truth Social post. “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” the president wrote.

According to a report from the New York Post citing a well-placed source familiar with the administration’s thinking, Duffy’s letter was intended to serve as a negotiating tactic rather than a final decision on congestion pricing.

According to the report, Hochul could go along with ending congestion pricing and refuse to file a lawsuit against the decision in exchange for federal funding. Both Trump and Hochul have stated in the past that they want to work together on renovating the Big Apple’s Penn Station.

The two are set to meet at the upcoming National Governors Association meeting in Washington, DC, which runs from February 20-22.

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