Suspension of city toll halts $16.5 billion subway modernization

New York City transit officials have rolled back billions of dollars in upgrades to the nation’s largest transit system after Governor Kathy Hochul halted the launch of a tolling program that would have funded improvements and repairs.

During its first meeting since Ms. Hochul’s decision to suspend the program, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board on Wednesday viewed presentations from agency staff detailing sweeping project cuts totaling $16.5 billion.

Plans to make subway stations more accessible to passengers with disabilities, repairs to nearly century-old infrastructure, and the extension of the Second Avenue subway line – among other now-delayed projects – have been abandoned.

“This presentation is disastrous,” said Midori Valdivia, a board member. “I don’t think any board member wants to sit here and talk about which projects we’re going to cut after we’ve approved all these projects.”

Wednesday’s meeting set the stage for board members to understand the full extent of the governor’s decision and the damage the pause will have on the agency’s overall financial health. Just last year, the MTA had balanced its operating budget for at least half a decade, thanks to a budget deal secured by the governor and the state legislature. Now, several board members fear that suspending the program will jeopardize not only capital projects, but also the MTA’s debt load, its borrowing potential and its ability to maintain daily operations.

The Board receives its annual financial update in July.

While the authority has adjusted and delayed much of its capital spending plans, board members passed a resolution Wednesday saying they remain prepared to put the congestion pricing program into effect as soon as it gets the green light from Albany. Ms. Hochul did not specify when that might be. (One board member, David S. Mack, an opponent of congestion pricing, voted 10-1 in favor of the resolution.)

In a statement delivered during Wednesday’s packed board meeting, Ms. Hochul argued that the MTA could cut costs to bolster its budget. She said the “temporary adjustments” announced during the board meeting did not mean the end of the agency’s projects.

“New Yorkers have no reason to worry that any of the planned projects will not be implemented,” Ms. Hochul wrote.

A record 141 people signed up to speak at the meeting, with dozens lining up to criticize the governor and urge board members to find a way to pass the congestion charge—some suggested the board should override Hochul’s proposal and begin collecting the toll anyway.

However, without state approval, the toll program could not be implemented as planned on June 30, the agency said before Ms. Hochul changed her mind.

The congestion charge would have charged most drivers $15 to enter the busiest parts of Manhattan. The goal was to reduce traffic while generating money desperately needed to modernize New York’s 24-hour subway. But when Ms. Hochul withdrew her support for the program’s scheduled launch earlier this month, she effectively blocked many of the transit system’s overhauls. Ms. Hochul has promised to find alternative sources of funding for the MTA.

The governor has said the congestion charge threatens New York’s recovery from the pandemic, arguing that the city’s economy is still too weak to handle a new burden on drivers and that she fears the program would give commuters another reason not to return to the office in the era of remote work.

Her change of heart was welcomed by a growing number of opponents who had accused the MTA of unfairly targeting car commuters to plug its budget deficits.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Janno Lieber, the MTA’s CEO and chairman, said he took the governor at her word when she said she would raise the money needed to plug the agency’s budget.

Money from New York’s congestion toll program was already expected to help repair a transportation network that carries more people than any other on the continent. The congestion toll should also reduce the number of vehicles traveling through Lower Manhattan by about 17 percent, according to a study conducted in November by an advisory committee that reports to the MTA. The report also said the program would reduce the total number of miles driven in 28 of the region’s boroughs.

“No other policy promises as much to invest in our public transit system and get our out-of-control traffic congestion under control,” says Tom Wright, executive director of the Regional Plan Association, an urban planning advocacy group that supports a congestion charge.

The benefits of congestion charging, as well as potential unintended consequences of the program, are the subject of eight pending lawsuits against the program. Last week, a federal judge dismissed a central argument behind three of those lawsuits, giving advocates new hope. Advocates have said they plan to go to court themselves to challenge the governor’s delay because they believe the 2019 state law that created the program, among other laws, overrides Ms. Hochul’s desire to stop it.