The leader of a New York City union that represents bus and subway supervisors slammed Gov. Kathy Hochul and state authorities for implementing a congestion toll on Manhattan drivers in the wake of escalating violence on the city’s subways.
The toll, which ranges from $4.50 for motorcycles to $9 for passenger vehicles, and up to $21.60 for large trucks that enter a zone south of 60th Street, is set to start Sunday.
Phil Valenti, head of the 1,600-member Transport Workers Union Local 106, told the New York Post on Thursday that the subways are too dangerous to give commuters another option. He said Hochul and Janno Lieber, chair of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, “are to blame for this mess.”
“To put congestion pricing in now is atrocious, disgusting — a real slap in the face,” Valenti said. “The subway system is unsafe right now. Give me a break. New Yorkers have been forced into a terrible and unfair position.
“You can pay $9 to enter the congestion pricing zone or take the subway, where violent crime is soaring. At least some drivers will be afraid to take the subway, undermining the entire purpose of congestion pricing.”
New York’s subway system has been ravaged by recent violence amid a spike in transit crime, beginning with the torching death of a New Jersey woman on a Brooklyn subway train on Dec. 22. The crime spree has seen five people stabbed or slashed and a 45-year-old man thrown under a Manhattan subway train since Sunday, according to the Post.
Valenti said the 10 subway murders in 2024 were double 2023’s totals, a 233% increase from the pre-COVID period five years ago and the highest in a generation. There were 573 felony assaults last year through Sunday, a 51% increase from five years ago. He said the MTA loses $700 million a year from subway and bus fare cheaters, and that should be more of a priority than making drivers pay another toll.
He also tore into the state’s policy of being a sanctuary for illegal immigrants.
“With Gov. Hochul’s policies of New York state being a wide-open sanctuary state, we now have the mentality ill from all over the world, who are homeless, walking our streets, taking our subways and killing people randomly,” he said. “Riders and workers are not safe.”
Michael Kemper, the MTA’s chief security officer, said in a statement to The Post: “Thousands of NYPD Transit officers are working every hour of the day and night to make the subway safe, and the record reflects they are making an impact. I know firsthand that to suggest otherwise disrespects the commitment to transit workers and riders, and real results delivered by those officers.”
Hochul’s office said she is focusing on affordability and subway crime.
“Gov. Hochul cut the congestion pricing toll by 40%, squashed a potential 25% surge fee, and is fighting every single day to make the subways safer for commuters and transit workers,” a Hochul spokesman told the Post. “The governor deployed an additional 1,250 uniformed law enforcement personnel to support NYPD’s efforts to protect subway passengers, and she’ll continue working to fight crime and improve public safety.”
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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