School buses, some commuter buses, and a large swath of the city fleet will be exempt from the MTA’s congestion pricing plan, the Daily News has learned.
Any yellow school bus under contract with the city’s Department of Education will be exempt from the congestion charge, transit officials told The News. The DOE handles bus contracting for public schools as well as for some charter and private schools, and all such buses will be exempt under the MTA’s proposal.
Publicly accessible buses that run on a regular schedule will also be exempt, even if those buses are operated by a private company.
That will include intercity long distance buses, like those operated by MegaBus, as well as regional bus services like the Hampton Jitney.
The exemption will not apply to to buses that are not open to the public — like employee shuttles — nor will it include buses that do not operate on a regular schedule.
The tolling plan previously exempted specialized, city-operated vehicles — like garbage trucks and fire engines. Going forward, the plan will exempt the bulk of the city’s municipal fleet, including small cars and trucks used by various agency inspectors and other officials.
Transit brass told The News that the MTA is not considering any exemptions for public workers’ private vehicles.
MTA officials characterized the exemptions Sunday as “clarifications” to the tolling plan first authored by the state’s Traffic Mobility Review Board and approved by the transit agency in December.
“As scheduled, the MTA will bring congestion pricing toll rates to a vote this week, tied closely to Traffic Mobility Review Board recommendations, with certain clarifications that include items raised by the City of New York and others,” Juliette Michaelson, MTA’s deputy chief for policy and a member of the TMRB, said in a statement.
At the time, TMRB Chairman Carl Weisbrod said his team had tried to minimize exemptions to keep the base toll low and “satisfy the many and not the few.”
Monday’s exemptions come after a final round of public comments ended earlier this month and ahead of an expected MTA vote on a final proposal this week.
Under the congestion plan, most drivers will be charged $15 once a day for surface-street access to Midtown and lower Manhattan.
The toll will scale up for larger vehicles like trucks and buses, which will also be subject to a fee any time they enter the congestion zone.
Congestion pricing, which was written into state law five years ago and is expected to raise $1 billion per year for the MTA, still faces challenges in federal court.
Barring a court order, MTA officials have said they plan on starting congestion pricing in June.
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