Gov. Kathy Hochul’s surprising decision on Wednesday not to start tolling drivers entering Manhattan this month set off an immediate celebration among political leaders in New Jersey. But transit advocates warned that the indefinite delay of congestion pricing was no victory for the state’s beleaguered commuters.
Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey, a Democrat like Ms. Hochul, had gone so far as to sue the federal government to stop or slow implementation of the tolling scheme, which would have charged as much as $15 per car entering Manhattan below 60th Street. A decision in that case was expected soon, but it was unclear on Thursday whether one would be needed.
“We would have fought it until the end,” Mr. Murphy told reporters. He said he had thanked Ms. Hochul when she called him on Wednesday to explain her decision.
Congestion pricing “would have put an enormous burden on our commuters and it would not have eliminated pollution,” Mr. Murphy said. “It would have displaced it from Manhattan into Hudson and Bergen Counties.”
Representative Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat who represents northern New Jersey and has been one of the most vocal opponents of congestion pricing, was still triumphant on Thursday.
“We’ve been throwing everything at this for a long time,” he said. “This was a huge win for hardworking families in New Jersey.”
But transit advocates, some of whom were headed to Albany to try to change Ms. Hochul’s mind, said commuters would still pay a price because the toll revenue had been intended to improve New York City’s transit network.
Jaqi Cohen, director of climate and equity policy at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, said that many of the thousands of New Jersey residents who ride trains and buses to jobs in Manhattan and other parts of the city also rely on the subway or the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s buses. They too will suffer if the authority cannot afford to make improvements or maintain its service, she said.
“The governor might be celebrating, but certainly the transit riders of New Jersey are not celebrating and the environmental advocates are not celebrating,” Ms. Cohen said. “This is going to have really negative impacts on the commuters that take transit into Manhattan every day.”
Alex Ambrose, a policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective, a research group, said the halting was “not a cause for celebration.” New Jersey residents “who absolutely need to drive into downtown Manhattan,” she said, would have seen less traffic and reduced pollution.
“In New Jersey, we benefit from being close to New York but we also have suffered from that proximity,” Ms. Ambrose said. “We have some of the worst air quality in the nation,” she added. “You’ve also seen some of the worst congestion in the nation.”
New Jersey commutes have also been difficult lately because of frequent problems with the rail infrastructure in and around New York City, much of which is owned by Amtrak, the national railroad.
Just two weeks ago, a downed power cable caused hourslong delays along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor south of the city, resulting in hellish commutes home for many New Jerseyans.
And this week, hundreds of commuters were left standing for more than an hour in Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan because of a “track condition” near Secaucus, N.J., on Wednesday night. The next day, a disabled train in a tunnel under the Hudson River caused delays as long as 30 minutes, New Jersey Transit reported.
Those commuters are about to be hit with their first fare increase in several years when New Jersey Transit raises all ticket prices by 15 percent on July 1. Fares are scheduled to increase by an additional 3 percent annually after that.
The agency said it needed the additional revenue to close a budget gap of more than $100 million in the coming fiscal year. Mr. Murphy has proposed reviving a corporate business tax to bridge much larger funding gaps in future years, but the state legislature has not yet approved that plan.
Ms. Cohen said Ms. Hochul’s sudden reversal was stunning to transit advocates like herself because the governor “had been standing with advocates for months championing congestion pricing.”
Ms. Cohen likened the about-face to one by Chris Christie, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, in 2010. Just as construction of a rail tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan was getting started, Mr. Christie unilaterally canceled the project and returned some of the money the federal government had invested in it.
“That is Chris Christie’s legacy as governor,” Ms. Cohen said.
Congestion pricing would have been a “monumental part” of Ms. Hochul’s legacy, she added, “but she reversed course and sold out transit riders.”
