Trump's Attempt to End Congestion Pricing Is Shot Down

"A court ruling today allows congestion pricing, the lower-Manhattan tolling plan that was a decade in the making and launched at the beginning of 2025, to continue. The administration has tried everything in its toolbox to stop it, based on not data or studies or anything much beyond rich-old-man pique."

"Sean Duffy's federal Department of Transportation last year asserted a degree of control over the funding, congressional appropriations bills and the power of the purse be damned, and summarily declared the program dead. Not so fast, said Southern District judge Lewis Liman last May, and granted a temporary injunction allowing the toll to remain in place."

"Meanwhile, congestion pricing is bringing in roughly half a billion a month, the cash is already paying for a lot of work on the transit system, traffic is significantly down, and city dwellers are breathing in fewer fumes."

New York's congestion pricing program, which charges tolls for vehicles entering lower Manhattan, survived a federal court challenge from the Trump administration. Judge Lewis Liman's ruling upheld the program that began in 2025 after a decade of development. The Trump administration's Department of Transportation had attempted to halt the program through federal control mechanisms, but the court rejected this approach. The program generates approximately half a billion dollars monthly, funding transit system improvements while reducing traffic congestion and air pollution. Though the administration indicated it may pursue additional legal challenges or appeals, meaningful federal opposition appears unlikely given the administration's pattern of abandoning unsuccessful confrontations.

Read at Curbed