The Federal District Court in Manhattan just released the final word in a long political battle: New York City congestion pricing is here to stay.
New York City officially began enacting the congestion pricing program in January 2025. The program currently has drivers pay $9 to enter the busy area below 60th street in Manhattan during peak traffic times. The goal is to have the toll gradually rise to $15 by 2031, eventually aiming to bring the city’s public transit system $1 billion annually.
Although the program was relatively unpopular at first, subsequent polling has shown that it’s growing on New Yorkers and yielding real benefits from a significant drop in pollution and traffic both in and outside the city to improvements in public safety and increased funding for public transit projects. Analysis also shows that the program has yet to lead to the adverse economic effects that its critics claimed were inevitable.
Trump was vocal about his disdain for congestion pricing and had his Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revoke federal approval pretty much as soon as he assumed office in January 2025.
In February 2025, Duffy sent a letter to New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority claiming that the program was a financial “burden” on commuters and exceeded the power “authorized by Congress,” rescinding Federal Highway Agency approval.
Following Duffy’s February letter, Trump took to Truth Social to celebrate.
“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” the President said in a post.
The MTA swiftly filed a lawsuit against the DOT’s decision. On Tuesday, federal Judge Lewis Liman ruled in the MTA’s favor.
Liman said that the DOT did not have the authority to dismantle a project established by a predecessor, which in this case was the Central Business District Tolling Program (CBDTP) signed into law by former President Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
“The February letter was based on the conclusion that Congress did not give the Secretary the authority to approve the CBDTP. That conclusion was an error of law,” Judge Liman wrote in the ruling. “The CBDTP was the product of a democratic process.”
The judge also concluded that Duffy’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious.”
“An unelected administrative agency may not make decisions affecting large segments of the public based on what comes to mind at the moment,” the judge wrote. “It must engage in reasoned decisionmaking.”
“Congestion pricing is legal, it works, and it is here to stay,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “I have been clear from day one: my administration will fight any unlawful effort by the Trump administration to attack the sovereignty of New York State with everything we’ve got. Today, we won again.”
The administration’s targeting of the New York congestion pricing program was only the first in a series of attacks on the Democrat-held New York area public transit since Trump took office.
The administration has also cut off tens of billions of dollars of funding to two crucial New York City infrastructure projects, the long-promised Second Avenue Subway and the Hudson Tunnel reconstruction project, on the alleged basis that both projects were giving out “DEI contracts.”
The Hudson Tunnel project is one of the most important infrastructure projects in the entire country, as it would resolve bottlenecks and delays in the most heavily traveled portion of the entire national passenger rail system. The Commission in charge of the endeavor successfully sued the Trump administration last month, as both funding and construction resumed under court order.
Last week, the MTA threatened to sue the administration for refusing to release $58 million in funding for the Second Avenue Subway project.
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