Initial Auto Toll Set at $9
All Toll Rates and Crossing Credits Discounted 40% From Previously Adopted Schedule and Will Stay There for Three Years
Program Will Launch on Sunday Morning, January 5, 2025
Over Time, Program Will Reduce Congestion and Provide $15 Billion for the MTA Capital Program to Upgrade Stations for Accessibility, Provide New Railroad and Subway Cars, Modernize Signals, Electrify Bus Fleet, and More
$55 Million in Environmental Mitigation Set for the Region and $100 Million for Place-Based Programs for the Bronx, Brooklyn, Newark, N.J., Fort Lee, N.J., East Orange, N.J., and Orange, N.J.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board today approved a new feature of the Congestion Relief Zone tolls adopted in March – a plan to phase in the new tolls over six years. With this new feature, all initial toll rates will be 60% of the initially approved rates in 2025, 2026, and 2027. Automobiles will be charged $9 during peak periods and $2.25 overnight. All other toll rates, including those for trucks, buses, and motorcycles, as well as all crossing credits, will be 60% of the initially approved rates.
From 2028 to 2030, the rates will stand at 80% of the initially approved rates – $12 for automobiles during peak times and $3 overnight. The full undiscounted rates will begin in 2031.
“Transit has to be preserved, expanded and improved or New York won't be New York,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “New York couldn’t exist without transit and I’m proud that with Governor Hochul’s leadership, we’re able to make more of those investments, so thank you to the Governor for getting us back on track - and to the MTA Board who along with the advocates and millions of everyday New Yorkers have never wavered – have never stopped fighting for better transit, a better city, and a better metropolitan area.”
“This is a historic day on the path to rebuilding and improving our transit system,” said MTA Construction and Development President Jamie Torres-Springer. "Thanks to the Governor’s leadership and today’s Board action, we will immediately reactivate major contracts for critical projects including work for the Second Avenue Subway Phase 2, accessibility projects, and state of good repair work, and we will continue to deliver these projects better, faster, and cheaper.”
"Moving ahead with the implementation of congestion pricing advances the final 23 ADA stations in the 2020-2024 Capital Plan and is a major win in our efforts to keep delivering accessibility projects at an unprecedented pace,” said MTA Chief Accessibility Officer Quemuel Arroyo. “Congestion pricing means a more equitable and accessible system beyond installation of elevators. It funds the purchase of new electric buses, reduces traffic for better bus service, and enables the MTA to perform necessary state-of-good repair work to the more-than-a-century old transit system to provide more reliable service – better reliability is better accessibility.”
All mitigation measures agreed to by the Project Sponsors and described in the Environmental Assessment and the June 2024 Reevaluation will proceed as previously announced, including the low-income discount, and place-based and regional mitigation measures: programs totaling $100 million for the Bronx, Brooklyn, Newark, N.J., Fort Lee, N.J., East Orange, N.J., and Orange, N.J., and $55 million in region-wide mitigations.
Next Steps
The toll collection is scheduled to begin Jan. 5, 2025.
The MTA is resuming the public education campaign that began on April 26 and was put on pause on June 5. To learn more about the program benefits, toll rates, and frequently asked questions, visit congestionreliefzone.mta.info.
In conformance with the Environmental Review process, the three project sponsors – the MTA, New York State Department of Transportation and New York City Department of Transportation – will submit a re-evaluation document to the Federal Highway Administration. The tolling authority would be conferred through an agreement with the Federal Highway Administration, pursuant to that agency’s Value Pricing Pilot Program.
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