Starting Sunday, most drivers who enter Manhattan south of 60th Street during peak travel times will be charged a $9 fee.
New York Times
By Tracey Tully and Ana Ley
Jan. 3, 2025
New York’s plan to charge most drivers $9 to enter Manhattan’s congested business districts cleared a crucial hurdle on Friday evening when a federal judge denied New Jersey’s emergency request to stop the new tolling program before it starts.
New York officials said they intended to move ahead with the long-planned and much-debated congestion pricing program beginning on Sunday.
“Everybody knows this is a huge, huge weekend,” said Janno Lieber, chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “We’re really gratified.”
Late Friday evening, opponents of the tolling program expressed frustration with the ruling. Oren Barzilay, the president of a union that represents about 4,100 emergency medical technicians, paramedics and fire inspectors in New York City, and said that the tolls would place an unfair burden on workers who are already struggling to make ends meet. The union, Local 2507, had advised about 270 of its members assigned to Midtown and Lower Manhattan to transfer to stations elsewhere in the city.
“They want us to pay to come to work,” Mr. Barzilay said. “That doesn’t make sense when your earnings are so low.”