MTA Board Approves Congestion Pricing Plan; Rockland County Seeks Injunction Calling Toll Rates Unfair to Hudson Valley Commuters

NEW YORK—The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board, in its capacity as the board of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, approved the controversial Central Business District toll rates by a vote of 11 to 1 on March 27. 

The approved toll rates, part of the controversial New York City congestion pricing plan, align with rates recommended by the Traffic Mobility Review Board on Nov. 30, 2023, and put forward for public review by the MTA Board on Dec. 6, with a handful of clarifications. In response to the vote, Rockland County filed suit against the congestion pricing plan. 

MTA officials stated that the Central Business Toll Rates were enacted after a public comment period in which the MTA received 25,600 written comments and heard from 386 speakers at four public hearings. 

“Today’s vote is one of the most significant the Board has ever undertaken, and the MTA is ready,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “In advance of day one of tolling, we’ve increased service on 12 subway lines, advanced redesigns of the entire NYC bus network, and implemented the largest service increase in LIRR history. And there’s more to come with the funds raised from congestion pricing—more accessible stations, modernized subway signals, and new expansion projects like Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway and Metro-North Penn Station Access.” 

Passenger vehicles and small commercial vehicles—sedans, SUVs, pick-up trucks, and small vans—paying with a valid E-ZPass will be charged $15 during the day and $3.75 at night, when there is less congestion, to enter the congestion relief zone in Manhattan below 60th Street. They will be charged no more than once a day. 

Trucks and some buses will be charged a toll of $24 or $36 during the day to enter the congestion relief zone in Manhattan below 60th Street, depending on their size and function, and $6 or $9 at night. The toll for motorcycles will be $7.50 during the day and $1.75 at night. Yellow taxi, green cab and black car passengers will pay a $1.25 toll for every trip to, from, within or through the zone; customers of app-based for-hire vehicles will pay $2.50. 

As previously proposed, qualifying authorized emergency vehicles and qualifying vehicles carrying people with disabilities will be exempt. As will school buses contracted with the New York City Department of Education, buses providing scheduled commuter services open to the public, commuter vans licensed with the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, and specialized government vehicles. 

A 50% discount will be available for low-income vehicle owners and a tax credit is available for low-income residents of the Central Business District. 

The toll for drivers entering Manhattan south of 60th Street is expected to start around June 15. An official date will be unveiled once a federal review on the tolling structure is completed and when critical infrastructure for the tolling, such as more license plate readers, are installed, CNN reported. 

In response to the MTA’s vote approving congestion pricing in some sections of New York City, Rockland County Executive Ed Day and the County of Rockland filed a lawsuit on March 27 against the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority over the congestion pricing plan. The complaint seeks an injunction against the commencement of the upcoming Central Business District Toll. 

The lawsuit contends that the toll is invalid and should be enjoined because: it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the New York State and United States Constitutions by discriminating against drivers from outside the central business district, and in favor of people who garage their cars within the district; the toll is an illegal tax and the MTA/TBTA failed to properly analyze the possibility of a toll reduction for persons paying the GWB toll or other tolls for transportation infrastructure. Rockland also complains that because the toll is implemented to deter people from driving it is subject to the Eighth Amendment prohibition against excessive fines. 

“We are joining the fight against the Congestion Pricing Plan and its grossly unfair impact on Rocklanders and other west of the Hudson commuters,” said Rockland County Executive Day. County Attorney Thomas Humbach added, “The way this is being implemented is unfair and inequitable which is what the lawsuit is about.”