Trump administration sets March 21 deadline for New York to end traffic congestion pricing

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration has given New York until next month to comply with its order to halt Manhattan's new congestion pricing system, but state officials on Wednesday vowed to continue the tolling program, which is meant to thin traffic and pump new revenue into the nation's busiest transit system.

The Federal Highway Administration said the $9 toll on most vehicles entering Manhattan neighborhoods south of Central Park must end by March 21, according to a letter provided to The Associated Press by the U.S. Department of Transportation on Wednesday.

The letter was sent to New York officials on Feb. 20, the day after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced he'd rescinded federal approval of the toll, calling it a "slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday promised an “orderly resistance” to the federal decree, which called for an “orderly termination” to congestion pricing. Similar toll programs have long existed in other cities, including London, Stockholm, Milan and Singapore, but have never been tried before in the U.S.

“We will not be steamrolled here in New York,” the Democratic governor vowed at a board meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that’s overseeing the new toll. “We're in this fight together, and I’m in this as long as it takes.”

Hochul met privately with Trump at the White House on Friday, presenting him a booklet her press secretary, Avi Small, said showed the early success of congestion pricing.

The MTA has filed suit in Manhattan federal court, arguing the Trump administration lacks legal authority to revoke approval for the program, which was granted under Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.

“The federal government cannot unilaterally terminate the program,” Janno Lieber, chair and CEO of the MTA, said on an appearance on NY1 last week. “Once it’s begun, there’s all kinds of case law in federal courts about the procedures that the federal government has to use to take away an approval to reverse a decision. None of this complies with that, and that’s why we are so comfortable that this is a strong case, and we’re going to win.”

Lieber argued Wednesday that the tolling plan, which launched on Jan. 5, is working as intended.

He said there are 60,000 fewer vehicles a day driving into the tolling zone — a 10% reduction — while travel times are noticeably faster on tunnels and bridges into Manhattan as well as its busy cross streets.

Pedestrian traffic is up around 4% and economic activity appears to be up, with Broadway theater attendance, restaurant reservations and retail sales in the tolling zone seeing increases over a similar period in 2024, Lieber said.

He said the MTA is on track to generate roughly $500 million from the toll program by the end of the year, allowing it to move forward with planned subway, bus and transit improvements. The MTA earned nearly $50 million in roughly the first month of the toll's operation, according to a report the agency released Monday.

“We’re not going back, no matter what the rhetoric from other parts of the East Coast is," Lieber said. “We tried gridlock for 50 years, and it was bad for our economy, it was bad for our health and it was bad for New Yorkers' quality of life.”

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Associated Press writer Anthony Izaguirre in Albany contributed to this story.