Exclusive | Deadbeat drivers racked up $5B in unpaid MTA tolls in 4 years and closing booths to go cashless may be to blame

Deadbeat drivers racked up $5.1 billion in unpaid MTA tolls and violations over four years – a number likely sent skyrocketing since “cashless” systems replaced the old payment booths, records reveal.The flailing Metropolitan Transportation Authority estimated total uncollected “toll violations” at more than $1.4 billion in 2024 alone and $3.7 billion combined from 2021 through 2023, according to a financial chart included in a request for proposals submitted to potential debt collectors.And the annual loss in toll revenues could eventually surpass $2 billion in upcoming years when including non-payment of tolls for the new $9 congestion pricing toll to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street, the document projected.“Instead of hitting people with a new and very unfair toll, the MTA should have focused its efforts to get deadbeats to pay existing tolls all along,” said Rep.Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn), who is urging President Trump to kill congestion pricing. “The real problem is Governor Kathy Hochul and the Democrat-controlled state legislature have created an environment where people feel they don’t need to follow the rules because there are zero consequences.

Enforce toll and fare beating and punish egregious repeat offenders not honest hard-working commuters.”The newly surfaced estimate for toll cheating is much larger than what the MTA has indicated in prior public statements.It’s reported that fare and toll evasion combined costs the mega-transit agency $700 million to $800 million a year — and that’s mostly attributed to subway and bus fare cheating rather than toll cheats.Rep.

Mike Lawler, the lower Hudson Valley Republican who is mulling a run for governor, called the apparent loss of toll revenue “really pathetic.”“Between fare jumpers and toll beaters, the MTA is losing a staggering $2 Billion per year.This level of gross negligence is criminal, plain and simple,” Lawler said.“The MTA needs an immedi...