Congestion pricing could offer the MTA a critical lifeline for recovery from the pandemic. With the Covid-19 crisis and without further federal aid from a Republican-controlled Senate, the MTA is facing a bleak financial outlook, forcing it to consider slashing city subway services by 40 percent.
The MTA is the public transit agency that operates North America’s largest transportation network, serving New York City, numerous downstate suburban counties and coastal Connecticut. Once put in place, is expected to generate $15 billion for the 2020-2024 Capital Plan of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. In New York, the plan would charge vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street, the part of town that represents the region’s largest employment center. Similar measures have already shown success in cutting traffic and associated pollution in major cities like London and Stockholm. The move came over a decade after then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg first proposed the measure in 2007, and amid continued advocacy by environmental organizations that expect it to help reduce city greenhouse gas emissions. state to approve congestion pricing, officially known as the Central Business District Tolling Program. In April 2019, New York became the first U.S. The Federal Highway Administration has been “radio silent” in providing any substantial rationale for the hold-up, McClellan said, adding that its behavior represented “a really inappropriate use of the environmental review process to further a political agenda.”