Republican administration Donald Trump He blocked the application of the controversial toll of 9 dollars that the state of New York implemented only a few months to access the center of the island of Manhattan.
“The New York toll is slapped in the face of the United States working class and the owners of small businesses,” said the Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, in a letter sent to the state governor, Kathy Hochul.
According to Duffy, travelers who use the highway system to enter the city have “financed the construction and improvement of these roads through the payment of taxes, but now the toll leaves drivers without any free driving alternative.”
“The congestion toll has fallen. Manhattan, and all New York, have been saved. Long life to the King! “Trump wrote in his social network social self -determining as” King. “
In addition, the Secretary of Transport and prevents the flow of trade that enters the city by increasing costs for trucks, which can make the goods “more expensive.”
Duffy notes in the letter that federal authorities will contact the State to discuss “the orderly cessation of toll operations”, although it does not specify an exact date in which this will happen.
Last January a controversial toll of 9 dollars entered into force For all vehicles that enter the central part of the Manhattan Island At all hours except at the time of the morning.
The objective of this measure, which Trump has already promised to eliminate in his return to the White House, It was to reduce the contamination of Manhattan and raise 15,000 million dollars for the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) of the city.
The president and executive director of the MTA, Janno Lieber, said today in a statement published in X that the government’s decision has already appealed to a federal court “to ensure that the successful program, which has already drastically reduced the congestion, (… ) Continue. ”
According to the MTA, in the first week of February Traffic on working days within the toll area was reduced by 9 % at the year -on -year level.
Along the same lines, Governor Hochul reacted ensuring that “public transport is the soul of New York City (…) as a New Yorker knows as President Trump.”
He added: “We are a nation of laws, not governed by a king (…) The MTA has initiated legal procedures in the Southern District of New York to preserve this crucial program. We will see each other in court. ”
