Congestion pricing is working, MTA officials said Monday, releasing data that showed the congestion pricing toll generated $48.7 million in gross revenue for January.
The revenue data comes as the Trump administration seeks to kill the congestion toll by revoking a federal authorization given last year allowing the MTA to fund the capital plan with toll revenue. The feds claim the program is somehow illegal because it focuses too much on revenue generation and not enough of congestion relief.
The toll, in which most drivers are charged $9 to enter surface streets at 60th St. and below in Manhattan, is meant to reduce vehicular traffic while simultaneously raising enough revenue to back $15 billion in bonds for several MTA capital projects.
MTA officials have previously said they need to raise roughly $500 million a year in order to back the bonds — an average of roughly $41.7 million a month.
Congestion pricing began on Jan. 5 — meaning the first four days of the month are not reflected in the data released Monday.
While Monday’s revenue figures clear the MTA’s bar for funding the bond issue, the first month of tolling fell $3.4 million short of the agency’s December projection of $52.1 million, according to MTA financial documents. At the same time, anticipated expenses to run the tolling program in January fell by $5.5 million — from $16.6 million to $11.1 million.
MTA data shows the toll is also reducing congestion, however. During the month of January, cross-river drive times plummeted an average of 10-30%. The average morning commute time into Manhattan via the Holland Tunnel dropped 48%.
Overall vehicular volume has dropped a relatively modest 5%.