New York unveils plans for first congestion charge for drivers who want to enter busy parts of Manhattan

New York has unveiled plans for its first congestion charge under which drivers will pay $11.52 (£8.31) to enter busy parts of Manhattan.

Cars will have to pay the fee if they enter midtown or downtown at peak times on a weekday.

Trucks and commercial vehicles would pay $25.34 (£18.28) and there would be a surcharge of between $2 (£1.44) and $5 (£3.61) per trip on for-hire vehicles like yellow cabs and Ubers.

If the plans are implemented they will be the first pay to drive scheme in the whole of the US.

They were outlined by a task force set up by New York state governor Andrew Cuomo to solve the gridlock in Manhattan and fund much needed repairs to the city’s stricken subway system.

The task force suggested creating a congestion zone stretching from 60th Street south to the South tip of Manhattan.

The proposed zone would go all the way across Manhattan, from the Hudson River to the East River.

Mr Cuomo said that traffic in New York had become ‘terrible, worse than gridlock’ with average speeds below 8.5mph - London’s is around 7.8mph.

He said: “As a born-and-raised Queens boy, I have outer-borough blood in my veins, and it is my priority that we keep costs down for hard-working New Yorkers, and encourage use of mass transit’.

Mr Cuomo added that a fee on for-hire vehicles was £one of the first places I would look to reduce congestion and to raise money”.

New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has opposed congestion pricing in the past, said the task force report was a “step in the right direction”.

He said: “This plan certainly shows improvement over previous plans we’ve seen”.

Since the 1970s New York has repeatedly tried to bring in congestion pricing but all attempts have all failed due to lack of will and pressure from businesses.

The last attempt was by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg but it failed to get through the state Senate in 2008.