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Governor Kathy Hochul and MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber provided an update on congestion pricing after the Trump Administration released a letter from the U.S. Department of Transportation attempting to rescind federal approval for the program.
A transcript of remarks by Governor Hochul and Chair Lieber appears below.
Governor Kathy Hochul: Good afternoon. I'm joined here today by Janno Lieber, the Chairman and CEO of the MTA, and my counsel, Brian Mahanna.
At 1:01 p.m. today, The U.S. Department of Transportation emailed us a letter from Secretary Duffy, announcing their attempt to end the congestion pricing program in the State of New York.
At 1:58 p.m., President Donald Trump tweeted, “Long live the king.” I'm here to say, New York hasn't labored under a king in over 250 years and we sure as hell are not going to start now.
The streets of this city, where battles were fought; we stood up to a king. And we won then. And in case you don't know New Yorkers, when we're in a fight, we do not back down. Not now, not ever. Because, who are we fighting for here? We're fighting for our residents, our commuters, our riders, our drivers, our emergency personnel. Life has gotten better for those who have asthma. People with illness. That's who we're fighting for.
And the six million people who use the MTA to get to their jobs and their lives and to their doctorate: nurses, doctors, EMTs and all those that need to get to their jobs in a reliable way, they're now going to be affected.
I also have to raise a question. They look at the pretext for this rejection — and we have a lot of legal reasons why we know we're going to be victorious — but they actually cited the will of New Jersey: “New Jersey didn't want this.” Ignoring the will of the people who live here, their elected leaders in Albany, and all of a sudden, the Trump Administration is citing, “New Jersey isn't happy.” I'll talk about that later. But here's what I want to also say.
I don't care if you love congestion pricing or hate it. This is an attack on our sovereign identity, our independence from Washington. And we are a nation of states. This is what we fought for. This is what people like Alexander Hamilton and others fought for: To set up a system where we are not subservient to a king or anyone else out of Washington. So this is the fight we're in. It's all about our sovereignty.
And I spoke to the President many times. In a reasonable way. In a calm way. You're a New Yorker. You know how essential it is to have safe, reliable public transit, or else this system shuts down. Our economy shuts down. The nation's economy could shut down. That's how essential we are, and one would think he would know that.
And then you have others involved. It feels like — you know what it feels like? The commuters of our city and our region are now the roadkill on Donald Trump's revenge tour against New York.
And I have to say this to Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy: It's not the real world, Sean. It's real life for New Yorkers. And don't you forget that. We're in fight mode within seconds of us getting this notification. Our MTA was prepared. We knew this could come and filed a lawsuit within minutes. I'm very confident we will be successful. And I also want to say, the cameras are staying on. We are keeping the cameras on. Lights, cameras, action. They're staying on.
Last thing I'll say: If in some world they are successful, the next time you're stuck in traffic, the next time your train is delayed, the next time you're in a flooded station because infrastructure repairs were not made, I want you to think of this. Think about this: Next time you're stuck in traffic, we know where the blame goes. Okay.
We have my top ten reasons why congestion pricing is working. But as someone who's worked so hard, I want to let Janno Lieber tell you why we believe this program is working and why it's essential. Then we will take any questions and my counsel can explain our legal strategy as well. Thank you very much.
MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber: Wow, thank you, Governor Hochul, thank you for your leadership on this issue, simple, simple situation. New York ain't going back. We tried gridlock for 60 years. It didn't work. It cost our economy billions. But you know what's helping our economy? What's making New York a better place? Congestion pricing.
So as the Governor said, let me just take you through what's happened in the month and a half since tolling began. Traffic was down 9 percent in January. 1.2 million fewer vehicles entered the Central Business District and that meant bus speeds, and all speeds, went way up — particularly express buses, people coming from areas where a lot of people drive.
The cross streets - the cross streets — which are the death zone for drivers in Manhattan, everybody knows that Canal Street, 34th Street, 57th Street, speeds are up, up, up. The streets are safer — half as many crashes, and that means pedestrians are not getting injured.
But this is a governor who talks to me about the economy. There are fewer cars, but there are more people coming to the central businesses, and that's what you want. That's what you want. And the Central Business District areas have had a surge in pedestrian traffic — tourists, shoppers, that far outpaces the rest of the city and the rest of Manhattan.
And, we heard a lot of, “no one is going to come here for dinner.” Restaurant reservations are up 7 percent since congestion pricing – far outpacing the other cities on the East Coast.
Broadway is humming. Gross is up 25 percent. Audience attendance up 20 percent. Yellow cabs — yellow cabs were concerned. They've had a hard time before COVID. And during COVID, their trips and their tips are up 10 percent. The yellow cab drivers are seeing a lot more money.
And, small fact that might, I don't know, interest President Trump: commercial office leasing in the month of January 2025 compared to 2024 up 61 percent — is that a vote of confidence? People want to be in New York. People want to come to New York, and they're signing leases. New Yorkers are seeing the difference. As the governor alluded to, we did. There was one poll, a major poll done. It found that six out of 10 voters say President Trump should allow us to keep congestion pricing. And interestingly, seven out of 10 drivers, the people who regularly drive to Manhattan, are saying, “this is good. This is a good deal.” And they are saying, “keep congestion pricing.”
So it's mystifying that after four years of environmental study, a 4,000 page environmental review, that the US DOT would seek to reverse course. So we're doing — I just want to reinforce what the governor said — we're doing exactly what the federal government asked of New York and everybody. We are doing a thoughtful, local solution. I thought the Republican Party was in favor of local control. I thought the Republican Party was in favor of local control. And so, as you said, Real World New York, a new episode tells you at our density nine times Phoenix or Houston, one of those Sunbelt cities. We don't have enough room to have everybody come to our streets in a car, we just don't have enough room. So as the Governor said that within moments of receiving that letter, we responded with a lawsuit which says number one, we’re seeking a declaratory judgment that this is not proper, and number two, we’re not turning off the tolls until there’s a verdict.