MTA will not boost service when congestion pricing goes into effect

While the MTA is confident its congestion pricing program is on track to go into effect this May, the agency has no plans to increase bus service and expects subways to absorb additional riders.

MTA Chair Janno Lieber said Wednesday there’s no need to boost service because subways and buses aren’t full, they’re still recovering from pandemic losses. Recent ridership highs on the subway are still at about 70% of pre-pandemic levels.

“We have plenty of room, excess capacity on subways, buses and commuter rails,” Lieber said at an MTA board meeting. “In a system where we are down a couple million passengers on mass transit everyday versus pre-COVID, we can easily accommodate the total 75,000 or so additional transit riders that the congestion pricing system is projected to generate.”

The MTA has installed about 30% of the tolling infrastructure that will charge drivers entering Manhattan south of 60th Street – an area referred to as the central business district.

Lieber called a May deadline to implement congestion pricing “realistic.”

When London launched its congestion pricing program in 2003, it found ways to also offer commuters alternatives to driving, such as adding 300 more buses.

On Tuesday, the MTA again hit a COVID-era subway ridership high, after topping more than 4 million riders a couple of days last week.

The MTA projects a 20% reduction of vehicles in the congestion zone once the tolls go into effect. About 700,000 vehicles enter the congestion zone each day.

The six-member Traffic Mobility Review Board will recommend one of seven tolling structures to the MTA board. After that, the MTA is required to hold more public hearings.

Drivers are expected to pay the MTA $1 billion a year under the new program. The new revenue must be spent on capital improvements, such as new signals, train cars and buses.

Riders Alliance spokesperson Danny Pearlstein wrote in a statement that Mayor Eric Adams and the city Department of Transportation could help prepare for congestion pricing by recommitting to bus lane goals.

"Most people ride trains and buses to Manhattan's central business district today and, with capacity to spare, the New York metropolitan area is ready for congestion pricing to start now,” Pearlstein wrote in a statement. “But riders and communities that rely on bus service are sick and tired of wasting our time on the slowest buses in America. Mayor Eric Adams, working with the MTA, must keep his promise and deliver the busways and bus lanes we need and deserve."