NY Thruway Tolls Rise Jan. 1 For First Time In 14 Years

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Higher tolls on the New York State Thruway will take effect Monday.

Tolls are rising for E-Z Pass customers for the first time since 2010, and even more on cars without E-Z Pass. (Rates will increase again in 2027.)

The toll barriers affected locally include New Rochelle, Nyack, Spring Valley, Harriman and Yonkers.

For holders of NY E-Z Pass, under this proposal, beginning in 2024, the base NY E-ZPass rate will increase by 5 percent except for the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.

For the MCB, the base rate for E-ZPass holders would rise to $7.75 by 2027. That is far below the cost of crossing the George Washington Bridge, also across the Hudson River, but much higher than the cost of crossing upstream.

The tolls to cross the GWB rose in January 2023 to $12.75 for E-ZPass holders during off-peak hours, $14.75 with E-ZPass during peak commuting time, and $17 for tolls-by-mail

Tolls rose May 1 to $1.65 for E-ZPass holders to cross the Bear Mountain, Newburgh-Beacon, Mid-Hudson and Rip Van Winkle bridges.

The Tolls by Mail rate will rise sharply to a 75 percent differential from the current 30 percent above the NY E-ZPass rate.

Holders of E-Z Pass from other states will see their rate jump from the current Non-NY E-ZPass 15 percent rate differential to a 75 percent differential.

By 2027, rates for Non-NY E-ZPass (currently 5.1 cents per mile for passenger cars) and Tolls by Mail rates (currently 5.8 cents per mile for passenger cars) will increase to 8.6 cents per mile.

Even after the increases, systemwide rates will remain below the current standard rates of many other thruway systems across the nation, Thruway officials said. The Thruway base passenger vehicle toll rate is less than $0.05 per mile, compared to the New Jersey Turnpike ($0.11 per mile) and the Pennsylvania Turnpike ($0.14 per mile), they said.

The Thruway is a user-fee supported roadway and receives no federal, state, or local tax dollars, NYSTA officials pointed out. They said the fee increases are necessary for maintenance: The average age of the Thruway’s 815 bridges is 55, with 75 percent of those bridges more than 60 years old; and 85 percent of the Thruway’s roadway base dates back to its original construction, needing heavy reconstruction and rehabilitation activities to keep the riding surface in a state of good repair.

Bridge repairs are one of the Thruway Authority's biggest concerns, as crumbling bridges are a nationwide problem.

More than 85 of them have been identified for replacement within the next decade, officials said. Then the need to replace bridges grows exponentially; hundreds of bridges will need to be replaced in the following decade.