MTA Chairperson Janno Lieber took to the airwaves to defend congestion pricing from what he referred to as “grievance politics” Tuesday, forward of the second rush hour below the controversial tolling plan, which switched on for the primary time Sunday morning.
“New York has a problem — it’s called congestion,” Lieber mentioned throughout an look on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“We have a great mass transit system that 90% of our commuters take,” Lieber mentioned. “Using the proceeds from [congestion tolling] to invest in even better mass transit makes perfect sense — that’s why we’re doing it.”
The toll, which prices most passenger-car drivers $9 as soon as a day to enter Midtown and decrease Manhattan, is designed to again $15 billion in bonds earmarked for infrastructure enhancements to the subway, bus and commuter rail system most individuals use to entry town’s enterprise districts.
Proponents say the charges may even lower motorcar visitors within the congestion zone, growing bus speeds and emergency response instances.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber. (Shawn Inglima for New York Each day Information)
However critics have labeled the so-called “congestion tax” a cash seize.
Westchester Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, showing on “Morning Joe” to debate the toll Monday, referred to as the MTA “the worst-run authority in America,” including he “fundamentally believe[s] [the MTA] needs an enema.”
“The fact is the MTA loses $700 million a year from people who refuse to pay to ride the subway,” Lawler added, incorrectly.
The MTA estimates it’s complete loss from fare and toll evasion throughout all its divisions — together with subways, buses, commuter rail and bridges and tunnels — to be roughly $690 million, in accordance with a report printed in 2023. Of that quantity, subway fare evasion represents lower than half, $285 million, in misplaced income.
“This is grievance politics, not substance politics,” Lieber mentioned of Lawler’s criticisms Tuesday. “That guy is selling an outdated cartoon.”
Congestion pricing indicators welcome drivers on Park Ave. within the 60s blocks, wanting south. (Barry Williams / New York Each day Information)
As beforehand reported, the $15 billion in bonds contingent on congestion pricing are earmarked for quite a lot of big-ticket MTA upgrades and repairs, together with tons of of latest R211 subway automobiles for the lettered strains, accessibility enhancements at two dozen subway stations, and an extension of the long-awaited Second Ave. subway into East Harlem.
Lieber rejected the notion, put ahead by host Willie Geist, that the subway system “doesn’t appear to be working for New Yorkers.”
“I grew up in a New York where the subways broke down every 5,000 miles, and now they break down ever 200,000 miles,” Lieber mentioned.
“We have a long way to go, and it needs to feel safer,” the transit boss continued. “This is a much better system than we’ve had in a long time, and I’m proud that we continue to make it better.”
As for any indications of what the toll was doing for congestion above floor, Lieber mentioned it was too quickly to inform.
Congestion tolling gear on the Brooklyn Bridge in Manhattan on Sunday Jan. 5, 2025. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Each day Information)
“It’s too early to draw any, you know, long-term conclusions,” he mentioned. “Yesterday was a light day — everybody was noticing the traffic was light. But it was also the day after the holiday season, and there was snow forecast, so, we’re not drawing any premature conclusions.”
An MTA spokesman mentioned tolling knowledge ought to be out there for public launch by the tip of the week.
Subway ridership was up barely in comparison with final week, with 3,435,564 riders going underground Monday, up 3.4% from the Monday prior, and up 4% from January 8, 2024, final 12 months’s comparable Monday.
Initially Printed: January 7, 2025 at 6:52 PM EST
