Iohud.
Colleen Wilson, Thomas C. Zambito | January 5, 2025
NEWARK — Congestion pricing for drivers entering lower and midtown Manhattan will — most likely — start Jan. 5.
After more than four hours of deliberation Friday, Judge Leo M. Gordon rejected New Jersey’s request to halt the start of the controversial tolling program that will hit passenger cars entering Manhattan through the Lincoln and Holland tunnels with a $9 toll at peak hours.
Gordon’s clarification came less than 48 hours before the new toll program was scheduled to begin and four days after he released a 70-page decision on New Jersey’s suit to block the program that failed to say one way or the other whether the program could proceed.
Randy Mastro, the attorney representing New Jersey, asked Gordon to consider a five-day delay of the program, which Gordon denied, but he said the Garden State could still make an appeal to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals over the weekend.
Gordon’s Friday clarification came after both sides in the litigation declared victory when his initial decision was released earlier in the week, causing confusion about whether the $9 toll to enter Manhattan below 60th Street would go into effect Sunday as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority planned.
Supporters of congestion pricing staged a rally outside the Newark courthouse calling for New Jersey to end its litigation, saying the toll would prop up the MTA’s subway, bus and commuter rail system, improve the environment and reduce traffic.
Meanwhile, the union chapter representing EMTs and paramedics in Manhattan advised members to transfer to outer-borough stations. Fire Department of New York EMTs earn just under $19 per hour and are the lowest-paid of the city’s first responders.
“Members are routinely assigned to midnight shifts, often compelled without notice by the FDNY to work double tours, so most EMS members cannot rely on public transit to commute to their stations,” Oren Barzilay, president of FDNY EMS Local 2507, said in a statement.