The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it intends to cancel the approval of the Consensation Pricing Program in New York City, designed to reduce traffic in the heart of a busy manhattan and in this process, New York’s Metro Train And to raise billions to upgrade the bus system.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public-private unit which provides public transport services in the New York Metro sector, immediately sued the government in an attempt to block its move.
System – The first of its kind in an American city – is in operation for only a few weeks, which begins on 5 January after being blocked last year. But US Transport Secretary Sean Dafi said that the federal government’s move will now stop the program. Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to use federal power to cancel the approval for the approved program approved in the last months of the Biden administration.
On Wednesday, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Consulation is pricing dead. Manhattan, and all of New York, have survived. The king lives for a long time! ,
Kathy Hochar, Governor of New York and a Democrat, who have been firmly behind the scheme, had earlier said that ranging from charging tolls to charging drivers to large scale transit capital improvement $ 15bn in loan financing $ 15bn Will be reduced.
But in a letter addressed to Hosul on Wednesday, Dafi said: “I share the President’s concerns about the influence of the Americans of the working class, who now have an additional financial burden for their daily lives. Users of highway networks within the CBD (Central Business District) toling area have already funded the construction and improvement of these highways through payment of gas taxes and other taxes. ,
He said: “The recent imposition of this (congestion pricing program) on residents, businesses and passengers left highway users without any free highway option, on which the concerned field is to travel within. Also, under this pilot program The revenue generated is directed to the transit system unlike the highways.
Dafi also cited the concerns expressed by New Jersey Governor, Phil Murphy, a Democrat and the State Transport Commissioner, Francis O’Coner.
On 20 January, on Trump’s inauguration day, Murphy sent a letter to Trump in which he asked him to re -examine the congestion pricing program of New York. Murphy wrote, “The resulting crowd pricing plan is a disaster for the work and the middle class’s New Jersey travelers and inhabitants.”
In Wednesday’s letter, Dafi also said that he believes that imposing tolls under “(Convention Pricing Program) is mainly motivated by the need to raise revenue for the metropolitan transit authority system, because the crowds are less Unlike the need to do “.
“I believe that the initial project data published by MTA reports the benefit of a congestion reduction, but the toll rate which is determined … should not be mainly operated by revenue goals, especially revenue The goals whose highway has nothing to do with the infrastructure, “he said. ,
The decision of the US Transport Department to cancel the approval of the program will ban the city’s initiative, which will impose a fee of $ 9 on the drivers who below the 60th Street in Manhattan between 5 pm and 9 pm In and weekends come down from 9 am to 9 pm to 9 pm.
In the last May, Trump vowed to end the program by writing on his true social stage: “I will end the price of the crowd in my first week in the office !!!”
After promotion of newspaper
The Guardian has reached Hutchul’s office for remarks.
In response to the decision of the Transport Department, New York American representative Jerry Nudler stated that the arguments are “completely baseless and clearly, laughing”.
“The notion of cancellation of approval for a federal initiative of this magnitude is almost without example. I firmly believe that there is no legal basis for the President to unilaterally stop the program, “he wrote,” Mr. President, we will see you in court. ,
Dafi did not give any date to end the program, and their announcement may bring other legal challenges. New York Times reported that New Yorkers had mixed mixed about the scheme, but were behind supporters of public transport and a cleaner environment and in the initial days MTA data indicated that the road in Central Manhattan reduced the road crowd Was gone, New York Times told.
Reuters contributed reporting
