New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s last-minute decision to indefinitely halt a congestion pricing plan could send transit riders back to 2017’s infamous “Summer of Hell,” when chronic train delays left furious riders stranded on platforms for hours.

Hochul on Wednesday paused a plan set to begin at the end of this month that would have charged motorists driving into Manhattan’s central business district, citing concerns that inflation and financial pressures have had on working-class families. The revenue was expected to generate $15 billion to modernize New York City’s century-old transit system.

“We could be looking at 2017 Summer of Hell as a way of life, and that’s a terrible burden not just for transit riders but for our entire regional economy,” said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the city’s subways, buses and commuter rail lines.

Without the new revenue, the MTA is at risk of postponing signal upgrades, accessibility projects, extending the Second Avenue subway to Harlem and even vital repair work that keeps the biggest US transit system running.

That means riders may face continued delays and service suspensions as the MTA struggles to maintain an aging system that’s been battered by extreme weather events.

New York City’s transit network is at a turning point. It needs billions of dollars to rehabilitate rail lines and signaling systems, and fortify stations and tracks from heavy rainfalls and flooding. That work, along with expansion projects and adding more elevators to stations, could bring more riders back and help boost the MTA’s farebox revenue collections.

Hochul’s stunning move, driven partly by political concerns, is set to deepen a hole in the MTA’s current $51.5 billion multi-year capital plan. That’s in addition to about $25 billion of new revenue the transit provider will need from city and state lawmakers in its next capital budget for 2025—2029, according to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. 

While many drivers are relieved about congestion pricing’s delay, transit advocates point to the problems that still plague the area: ambulances stuck in traffic and a transit system struggling to provide better service for millions of riders a day.

“We have paralyzing levels of traffic in midtown and downtown — slowing emergency response times, harming our climate fight,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said in a post on X. “We have desperate funding needs in our subways — stations in need of renovations, outdated signaling, etc. How are we going to fix these things now??”

Hochul said officials have set aside money to “backstop the MTA capital plan” and that her administration is looking into other funding sources. Still, the transit agency needs revenue now as some projects have been on hold for months. The MTA in February suspended new construction contracts as legal challenges against the congestion pricing plan prohibited the agency from committing to work.

The governor will seek to replace the tolling plan with a tax on New York City businesses, according to a person familiar with the situation who requested anonymity because the proposal hasn’t been made public. Any new tax would require approval by the state legislature.

A spokesman for the MTA directed all questions to the governor’s office.

Virtually all of the tolling gantries are already in place on Manhattan streets. In 2019, the MTA inked a $507 million contract with TransCore LP to design, build, install and later operate and maintain the tolling infrastructure, according to MTA board documents. The parties in October increased that agreement by $48.5 million because of delays in the federal approval process.

The MTA is on the hook to TransCore for at least $281 million of that total, according to board documents. 

The tolling plan would have charged most drivers $15 to enter Manhattan’s central business district, which runs from 60th Street to the southern tip of the island. The aim was to reduce traffic, improve air quality, boost transit ridership and provide funds to modernize the MTA’s sprawling system.

But critics said the new charge would harm lower-income families that have no choice but to drive and small businesses that are already struggling to come back from the pandemic. New Jersey sued to stop the plan, saying a longer environmental review was needed to better analyze the potential impacts on the Garden State. 

Proponents saw a golden opportunity to fix the MTA’s financial and infrastructure woes, a move that would ultimately help the region’s economy as the transit system gets residents to work, school, shopping and entertainment.

“All sectors should contribute to improving transit, including drivers,” Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, an independent watchdog, said in a statement. “Furthermore, it is a regional system that underpins the state’s economic engine. Sharing the cost of investment is the best strategy for the environment and the economy.”