NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- New York City’s congestion pricing program can continue after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration’s attempts to terminate it were unlawful — a financial win for the nation’s largest mass transit provider.
US District Judge Lewis Liman found Tuesday that US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s move to end the program was “arbitrary and capricious.” Liman, however, declined to issue an order blocking possible future attempts to stymie the program.
The ruling means the MTA, which sued in February 2025 to prevent Duffy from terminating the deal, can keep operating the program indefinitely, though the legal fight may continue. The Trump administration could take the case to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The ruling is a key win for the MTA’s finances. It’s relying on the congestion pricing revenue to finance $15 billion to help modernize a more than century-old transit system. The funds will extend the Second Avenue subway to Harlem, replace train signals from the 1930s and add more elevators to subway stations.
Spokespeople for the White House and Transportation Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Spokespeople for New York Governor Kathy Hochul and the MTA didn’t have an immediate comment.
The congestion toll is the first of its kind in the US. Most passenger cars pay $9 during peak hours to drive into the tolled area that runs from 60th Street in Manhattan to the bottom of the island. The initiative brought in $562 million of revenue last year, according to MTA financial documents.
The program has reduced traffic. From January through December last year an average 72,600 fewer vehicles entered the tolled area each day, about an 11% decline, according to MTA data. Public buses operating below 60th Street are running a bit faster, with average weekday bus speeds higher every month last year compared with 2024, according to MTA data.
The case is Metropolitan Transportation Authority v. Duffy, 25-cv-1413, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
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