The full rollout of congestion pricing in Manhattan is about two years away, even though it’s already been studied for years, MTA officials told state lawmakers Tuesday.
The testimony from MTA boss Pat Foye defended Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s efforts to get state lawmakers to sign off on the plan without knowing what the tolls will be — and then hand over the power to set those fees to an unelected six-person panel, the composition of which has not yet been determined.
“They’re not voting on the philosophy of congestion pricing, they’re going to be voting on congestion pricing,” Foye claimed Tuesday, despite Cuomo’s plan to give the board a blank check when it comes to setting tolls to drive into Manhattan south of 60th Street.
The MTA hopes to begin collecting tolls as soon as January 2021, even though it took London three years to get its system up and running and the agency can’t start soliciting contractors until the state passes the congestion pricing law.
“If you look at the process in London or Stockholm or Gothenburg, we’re frankly taking advantage of the lessons learned there,” Foye told reporters after the state Senate hearing in Manhattan. “And I think this is going pretty expeditiously.”
The governor outlined the new MTA super board proposal in a series of updates to his now-$177.4 billion state budget proposal released Friday. Beyond setting tolls, it would also have the power to veto the MTA’s budget and construction plans.
Cuomo did not say who would appoint the members.
MTA officials say the expected $1 billion a year congestion pricing could generate is essential to their efforts to pay for badly needed projects to fix the crumbling subway system — which is bedeviled by century-old signals and decades-old trains that constantly fail and leave New Yorkers stranded.
The MTA hopes to be able to borrow against that new revenue stream and raise $15 billion over the first five years the tolls are in place.
Curing the subways ills will take those billions — and a whole lot more.
The head of the agency’s New York City arm, Andy Byford, outlined a $37 billion, 10-year plan in 2018 that calls for shutting down the major trunk lines in Manhattan to replace the decrepit stop-light signals with a new computer-controlled system, which has already been installed on the L and 7 trains.
It would also purchase hundreds of subway cars compatible with the new signals and install dozens of new elevators in stations to make the system more accessible.
Advocates tout the tolls as something of a miracle cure for New York’s myriad transportation and pollution ills. The tolls are expected to fund needed subway improvements; reduce congestion by providing new discouragement from driving and cutting pollution by keeping cars and buses moving.