MTA’s ETA for congestion pricing: 2021

The full rollout of congestion pricing in Manhattan is still about two years away, officials told state lawmakers Tuesday.

The MTA hopes to begin collecting in early 2021 after yet another study to explore the price point of the contentious toll.

MTA President Pat Foye said the agency should be able to hit that date although it took London and other cities at least three years to get their congestion-pricing plans up and running.

“If you look at the process in London or Stockholm or Gothenburg (in Sweden), we’re frankly taking advantage of the lessons learned there,” Foye told reporters after a state Senate hearing in Manhattan.

Foye defended Gov. Cuomo’s efforts to get state lawmakers to sign off on the plan without knowing what the tolls will be — and then hand over the power to set those fees to an unelected six-person panel, the composition of which has not yet been determined. “They’re not voting on the philosophy of congestion pricing, they’re going to be voting on congestion pricing,” Foye claimed Tuesday, despite Cuomo’s plan to give the board a blank check when it comes to setting tolls to drive into Manhattan south of 60th Street.

The governor outlined the MTA superboard proposal in a series of updates to his now-$177.4 billion state budget proposal released Friday. MTA officials say the expected $1 billion a year congestion pricing could generate is essential to pay for repairs to the crumbling subway system.