The federal approval of the MTA’s congestion pricing tolls last month means some drivers will take a hit — but it also means major upgrades are coming to New York’s mass transit networks.
The tolls, which will charge motorists who drive in Manhattan south of 60th Street, are required by a state law passed in 2019 to bring in at least $1 billion a year for the MTA.
The agency must use that money to finance $15 billion in bonds to pay for mass transit improvements included in its 2020-2024 capital plan — which was formed in the aftermath of New York City’s 2017 “summer of hell” when the subways and commuter railroads fell into disrepair.
“That's a record level of capital commitment and, and that shows that they've got the projects lined up and ready to go,” said Rachael Fauss, a senior analyst at the good government group Reinvent Albany.
The money makes it possible for the MTA to pay for its planned $7.7 billion extension of the Second Avenue subway with three new stops in East Harlem. It enables the MTA to complete its Penn Access project, which aims to bring Metro-North trains into Penn Station and add four new stations in the Bronx. And it helps pay for work to make 70 subway stations and 12 Long Island Rail Road stations accessible with ramps and elevators.
The congestion pricing money also unlocks key initiatives that Fauss said are less obvious to riders.
“[Congestion pricing funds] the types of projects that are not the big fancy ribbon cuttings, but the ones that actually make the trains run better and faster. Because it's the less exciting, but most important, work of any capital plan,” Fauss said. “It's the state of good repair work that is being funded by congestion pricing.”
Those projects include new electronic signals that allow more trains to run closer together on the B, D, F, M, A, C, E, F, and G lines.
And officials said the money will help pay for more electric buses to meet the state’s goal of having an all electric bus fleet by 2040.
The money from congestion pricing is not allowed to help balance the MTA’s operating deficit, as some lawmakers have claimed. Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Nicole Malliotakis from New York wrote in a joint statement last week the tolls will be “used to pick up the tab for the woefully mismanaged MTA that is running a budget deficit.”
But the 2019 state law doesn’t allow the congestion pricing tolls to help plug the MTA’s budget deficits.
The next battle brewing will be over exactly how much the tolls will cost. The MTA board must approve the prices — which could range from $5 to $23, depending on the time of the day and type of vehicle — later this year.
A separate group, called the Traffic Mobility Review Board, must first give the MTA recommendations on the toll prices, as well as any type of driver they think should be exempt from the charges.
New York state law already allows for some exemptions to the tolls. Drivers won’t pay if they remain on the West Side Highway or FDR Drive south of 60th Street. Low-income drivers who live in the congestion zone, emergency vehicles and cars transporting people with disabilities are also exempt.
But New Jersey officials, including Gov. Phil Murphy, are pushing for the MTA to give New Jersey drivers discounts on the congestion pricing tolls if they’ve already paid to cross the Holland or Lincoln Tunnels. The MTA hasn’t ruled it out, but is waiting for the recommendations from the Traffic Mobility Review Board.
Murphy has threatened to sue over the tolls, which the MTA plans to begin collecting them as early as May.
